Blue Butterflies
by Solid Scorpion
Summary: I lived in a world full of death. I used to get dreams, about my loved ones. They would save me with strong arms and laughing voices. When I woke up from these dreams, I had nothing. No joy, no sorrow, no hatred, no memory. But something seemed different this time, I woke up, in a world full of talking diminutive horses. (My first fic, be nice and please R&R!)
1. File B-00: HALO

This fic is posted in normal considering 90% of the main storyline is revolving around ponies, with only 10% of metal gear.

(another reason is that I don't wanna be stuck in the deserted back alley of cross-overs, and be forever alone like that rock.)

Tactical-Espionage/Lightning-Bolt Action, with ponies.

MLP: FiM is copyright of Hasbro

The Metal Gear series are copyright of Konami/Kojima production, maybe will include Platinum too.

I do not own them!

A/N: Most people I met really hated MLP, for no particular reason at all. I initially agreed with that (due to peer pressure & stuff), not until I accidently saw it on the hub TV channel, I was instantly sucked into it. It was probably one of the best cartoons I've ever seen, it's just so heart warming, and the ponies would always put a smile on my face. But then when I looked back to the reality, it was hell, people despised the "bronies/pegasisters", thinking they are mad, some of them got bullied a lot (in my school). Until one day I just couldn't take it anymore, sure, I can't just go up and beat the crap out of those bronyhaters (I sure damn hope I can, but you know that a student would get expelled if he/she started a brawl), but I could write a fanfiction that would just simply crush their stereotypic bullshit. You know what? I'm actually gonna do it, with my favorite video game series.

Sorry about any information that some MLP and MGS experts might find incorrect, I'm not a particular specialist of these 2, some parts may be altered in order to fit the plot (look out for _**TIME PARADOX!**_).

My first FanFic, please R&R, and enjoy. Forgive me for some bad grammar that may appear in the story.

Warning: Contains ponies, language, violence, spoilers, severe anti-bronyhater-ism, and **purple-stuffed worms in flap-jaw space, with tuning forks **(ignore that one).

* * *

_"It's really strange that the haven the smartest living being ever created by god so desired yet failed to create, was successfully achieved by a group of ponies. Those who have the closest grasp to the true haven, are humiliated, denounced, and isolated from society. Ironic isn't it?"_

Dedicated to all bronies and pegasisters, who all kept a small haven deep within, in the cruel, cruel reality.

* * *

_"If you are going straight to hell, you would might as well go in with good intel."_

* * *

2014, Alaska, UN veteran hospital

"Snake, you're calling me?"

I whispered as Snake muttered and grumbled alien gibberish. He pointed toward the oxygen mask he was wearing as he gasped for air, "Ah ah ah…"was all I could hear. Snake's face slowly turned blue. The oxygen mask slipped off, and I quickly re-positioned the mask before Snake could turn into a darker shade of purple. Snake breathed deep and sighed in relief as he finally relaxed, and the color returned to his face.

It has been 4 months since the Guns of the Patriots incident, and Snake's body condition continued to deteriorate at an alarming rate. Tears began to fill up my eyes, obstructing my vision, which was extremely abnormal.

I wasn't exactly a semi-grown up crybaby. I am a child soldier, robbed of my childhood, I don't cry, I don't have emotions.

But this was simply too much.

* * *

2015, United States, UN military base delta-heliport

The sun gave off a weak warming aura of light as dawn slowly approached.

The pre-mission jitters were gone, now replaced with a cold calm. There was a job to do, and I was eager to get to work. I hauled myself up into the helicopter, another mission, just like before.

I am Cyrus, or I suppose that it is my name. In fact, I don't even have a name. This code name was given to me by The UN after I got drafted into the army as an operative, for the "crimes" my father committed. Until 3 years ago, I inherited the title, The Blue Butterfly.

I couldn't understand why they would grant any cold-blooded soldier such title, or create it in the first place, according to Otacon it was apparently in tribute of the metal gear that drowned itself decades ago back in the 1970's, along with "The Boss".

The Boss might have been vanquished twice, once by her most beloved disciple-who became the man known as Big Boss, and once on her own free will-revived as the metal gear known as Peace Walker, but her disciple was even luckier, 3 strikes and he's out, flamed twice, and Fox Died.

I snapped on the new experimental Solid Eye, the tiny black gadget chirped red into life as it found and rooted itself into its slot. I rechecked my Mosin Nagant, MK.2 tranq pistol and my two high frequency blades, giving them each a securing pat just as the chopper slowly ascended.

NORAD detected unusual radiation activities somewhere in the Pacific Ocean; they suspected nukes, and wanted me to go investigate. Due to my given order of to not harm, or kill any local inhabitants, I was only allowed to bring non-lethal weapons, with my high frequency blades being my last resort.

This was one of the few things the UN was good at, dishing contradicting orders for the sake of being UN. Another thing good old UN was capable of doing is giving out stupid, ridiculous, pointless missions when they couldn't come up with enough materials to impress the public. Especially since the war economy got totally screwed up after the fall of Sons of the Patriots. With SOP out of the picture, they needed something to keep their propaganda machines humming along, and that was probably where this "mission" came in.

Gage and Felicia were out there on some other random propaganda mission, so I figured that it was gonna be solo.

I looked out from the open hatch as the chopper took off, into the horizon as the land disappeared-replaced by the ocean. I thought about The Blue Butterfly, the title, and how ridiculous the title seemed. The title, given to me after countless sweats on bloody battle field dirt, was ironically meant for peace.

_"I hereby give this title, The Blue Butterfly, the symbol of peace and love__, to a demon, a child soldier, a lost soul."_

I pictured CDO spitting those words out like all the other daily lies he'd given out with the good old folks in the CIA to the public while sitting in their cushy little offices smoking cigar; it boded well, and it was amusing to think about. "Spreading justice" by killing innocent lives, "liberating nations" with gruesome carnage, and no one gave a shit. I peeked one last look toward the setting sun, and withdrew myself as the hatch closed. Sometimes, I really hate this world.

* * *

2014, Alaska, UN veteran hospital

Small drops of tears were already rolling down my face, I didn't care, but apparently Snake did. Barely able to raise his right hand, he held up an index finger and swayed it left and right. I knew what he meant and immediately dried my tears.

A fairly universal gesture, _don't._

He then sluggishly extended his arm forward toward mine, as if offering a handshake. Puzzled, I held out mine as well. In a split second he grasped my extended arm with surprising strength, and stared right into my face.

"A gift from the shadows." he muttered flatly, his voice oddly muffled through the oxygen mask.

I looked at him with wide eyes, Poor crazy old man...

Snake then reached for his bandana, the long strip of leather, and lifted it like it was made of lead. Assembled together into one, puzzle and fear overtook my entire body, but I did want to pay attention to my mentor; he's always full of surprises. Grunting in exertion, he placed the lead bandana on my hand, and it was once again teal leather. He held onto his signature accessory with both hands, and grinned; his eyes were shining.

"Eye..." he rasped through the oxygen mask, "have...you..."

"What is all this, Snake? What are you trying to do?"

His grip loosened, and his hands slipped away from mine; the cardiograph beeped blank. He was gone.

* * *

2015, Pacific Ocean, unknown location

I was jerked right back to reality when the helicopter suddenly bumped and wobbled, as if been struck by a missile. The seat belt tugged at my torso to prevent me from flying across the inner space of the chopper's interior cabin.

It was already near midnight, and I didn't even have the slightest idea of where the heck was I. I looked to my right at the soldier on the pilot seat, the passenger seat seemed to grow warm and sweaty.

"What the hell is going on?" I hissed, "Something's hot?"

"Negative," the pilot answered,"We are approaching close to target area, approximately in a good few minutes."

I disregarded the bump as an unfortunate sudden turbulence, until I saw the radar system flashed several times before it died and winked out. The pilot's face turned into granite.

"This is Raven 016, our radar system malfunctioned, awaiting permission to abort mission!" The pilot barked as he attempted to contact the base.

"Copy that, suspend investigation, and return to base immediately..." a lagging voice spilled out from the COM.

The pilot turned; the steer didn't budge. He tried again, pulling it with all his might, but the obstinate stick held.

"Shit, this bird ain't flying well. May-day! May-day!This is Raven 016, chopper steer system malfunction, could use some help!"

Static.

"I repeat! May-day! May-day! This is Raven 016, requesting support!"

Static...

The COM static gave it away, communication lost, we're toast.

"Son, I knew your mentor, he's one damn tough ass, an expensive one as well, and I expect you to be the same." He grunted without turning his head, "I want you to get the hell out of this damn bird before she starts goin' down, I'll do my best to keep the tub floating, I want you to jump off this chopper _now_."

"Are you out of your mind?!" I screamed," This chopper is going nuts! And there's no fucking way I'm leaving you behind, I had enough comrades lost for a life time, and I don't even know your name yet!"

"This is not the fucking time to argue about this kind of crap!" He yelled back, "Too bad, you're gonna have to count me in, ok?!"

I was struck mute.

"No time for that, son! Name's John, glad to know you kid, now get the fuck out of here!"

John...The name struck my innards like an invisible sledgehammer.

I shook my head, held my emotions, and slung the Mosin over my shoulder, joining the two high frequency blades tightly strapped behind my back in their sheaths. Giving one last look toward the pilot, I noticed his eyes, a pair of eyes that seemed so familiar, as if the eyes of a certain legendary hero, and the heart warming gaze of…

"Jump!" the pilot barked, "Get up! Go, go, go!"

* * *

2014, Alaska, UN veteran memorial cemetery

Snake's funeral was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

The white pedals of the dying flowers slowly brisked through my body, the soothing, depressing feeling of death.

"-and may the legendary hero of the modern time rest in peace..." the eulogist concluded.

Snake was gone, the thought wouldn't leave my mind alone, the mischievous feeling of sorrow just wouldn't let me go. I felt a sudden chill, as if someone (or some ghost) just tapped me on the shoulder. Alerted, I spun, and saw a half transparent figure of a hooded man floating.

Best week ever, Snake died, and some hallucination to wrap it up.

"_Sad… So sad…"_A voice hissed from the floating ghost figure.

Probably not a hallucination.

"_A host of sorrow…"_The voice faltered, and the hooded man evaporated into thin air.

It can't possibly get any worse than this, I thought_._

"You ok Cyrus?" Otacon asked, his tone full of concern.

"I'm fine..."

Otacon turned, back facing the legandary hero, and slowly started his way back. I followed, before a sudden urge to bid one last farewell yanked me around. Far away now, as it seemed, I looked for one last time at Snake, lying in eternity in the ghost of his past. I slowly raised my hand into a crisp salute, the very same teary salute from years ago.

"Farewell, Mentor..."

* * *

2015, Pacific Ocean, unknown location

The chopper violently jerked with another sudden thrust before I could unbuckle. The bullet-proof glass of the chopper's front window, as tough as it seemed, smashed and shattered into countless shards for no apparent reason. Our bodies flailed around in the seats, gravity was no longer existing.

For a millisecond I caught a quick glimpse of the pilot, he was out cold, and bleeding heavily from a large gaping wound on his forehead. With my augmented reflex everything seemed to move in slow motion, the shattering glass shards, the chirping sirens with the master warning, the capsules of pentazemin slipping from my chest pocket floating in zero gee. Then the unmistakable crack from the pilot's head indicated him KIA.

The seat belt creaked and gave away, and I was sucked out of the failing chopper and into the open space. The night sky flashing in rapid succession before my eyes as they followed the burning chopper.

For a while panic seemed to take over my entire body. Then my trainings kicked in, and my mind turned cold and metallic. I forced my arms and legs open; the spread-eagle position controlled my tumble and slowed my velocity. But I was still coming in at a terminal velocity, which for a fully armed soldier- I quickly calculated- 80 meters per second.

Wind gushed against my face as I struggled to open my eyes; the bandana I was wearing flickered under the strong wind. The clouds cleared, telling me that I was heading straight into the ocean as it laid before me.

Shit.

Before I even tried to reach for my parachute, flashes of white lightning sparkled on my suit. A stream of whiteness took over and abruptly swallowed my vision.

* * *

_"Raiden, something happened to me last Thursday when I was driving home. I had a couple of miles to go - I looked up and saw a glowing orange object in the sky, to the east! It was moving very irregularly... suddenly there was intense light all around me - and when I came to, I was home. What do you think happened to me?"_

* * *

Irritating feeling, but no pain yet. Then, as the whiteness slowly faded, I saw that I was no longer heading toward the ocean, but toward a vast forest, and I was dangerously close to the canopy.

It was time for a "HALO", extreme version. I reached for the tab for the parachute, pulled it, and shut my eyes tight.

* * *

2014, UN staff living quarters, Cyrus's room

Sunny cried real hard today, I had no idea that she was that attached to Snake, I thought she was already fed up with Snake rejecting her eggs. Sure, she was a terrible cook, every encounter with her holding a frying pan gave me a sense of doom, like staring Death in the face. But I had to bring my self into some sympathy, perhaps a little empathy... No, sympathy would be the closest emotion, any thing else would be excessive and stupid.

Do not let your emotions overtake you... I re-emphasized the mental note to myself once more.

Back at the living quarters, still thinking about the darn good times I had with Snake, I sank down on my bed. I once again recalled Snake doing all that weird hocus-pocus with that bandana of his, I didn't get it at all.

Taking out Snake's bandana, I scrutinized the thick long strip of teal leather. I found hardly anything special in particular about this ordinary bandana, but it did remind me of Snake, and the thought of that almost brought tears once more.

It was more than enough, so I decided to put it away; until a small surge of unknown shot straight through my arm. Then a sudden urge to wear the bandana overtook me, and I had virtually no control over my body. I finished wrapping the assecory onto my forehead with a securing knot, and without warning unbearable pulses pumped in and throughout my entire body.

_"Kept you waiting, huh?" _A familiar voice spoke inside my head.

I was hearing things, burning, as the familiar sensation of pain consumed my body. I sprawled on my bed gasping and choking. I saw flashes of images running through my eyes, too fast to be recognized. Then everything stopped.

* * *

2015, Unknown Area, Unknown location

I was relieved when I felt a strong jerk on my shoulders, until I saw that I was literally 10 feet away from the the blanket of viscious looking thorns. The suit was designed to take some moderate damage, but at this speed, it looked painful...

I took a deep breath, exhaled deeply as I could, grabbed my knees, and tucked into a ball, bracing myself for impact. The branches brushed against my sneaking suit, making unpleasant crunching noises as they snapped, very painful. I felt a thousand tiny knives stabbing me-pain unlike any I'd experienced since the surgery I had that turned me into a demon, the "Phantom Child" project.

The parachute yanked, and upon reflex I dislodged the parachute to prevent myself from getting stuck on the trees and becoming hang-man. It was one of the most stupid decisions I could ever make.

Hurtling toward the ground while still a good few yards from the surface, I crashed, my suit crumbled as it desperately attempted to absorb the damage. I tumbled as my body absorbed a series of rapid-fire impacts. It felt like taking a full clip of M4 fire at point-blank range. Seconds later I slammed to a bone-crunching halt.

My solid eye malfunctioned. I could no longer see or hear anything. I stayed in that limbo state and struggled to stay conscious and alert. Moments later, the solid eye display was filled with stars. I realized that the solid eye wasn't malfunctioning...I was.

My vision cleared, and I slowly rolled onto my hands and knees. My body was battered and bruised, burning with pain. But the pain was good - it helped keep me alert.

With effort, I struggled to my feet. I was dizzy but remained upright; I checked my equipments, relieved that they were still strapped tightly on me as I gave them each a re-assuring pat. I turned on my codec as I attempted to contact HQ.

"Come in, HQ," I coughed, a coppery taste lingered in my mouth," This is Cyrus; I'm currently in an unknown position, requesting back-up!"

COM static.

_"If you are going straight to hell, you would might as well go in with good intel."_ Snake's previous words lingered in my head.

This place-this forest-looked pretty damn hell-ish and gloomy, and obviously I didn't have a good intel of any sort. In addition to that, I was increasingly tired, and battered, my body still burning with pain.

I limped my way through the forest, apart from the annoying crickets it seemed like the whole forest was dead. I stopped as the unresistable urge to lower my head and catch my breath forced me down by a tree, totally exhausted. Mission failed,I silently admitted to myself, guess I'm gonna be MIA for quite a while. But I didn't give a damn, I could finally get some rest, rest all I want, without all that bullshit...

* * *

A/N: Well, that's my prologue. I hope this is not too bad. The MLP parts should appear soon. I would attempt to write as often as possible. Anyway, see you next time!


	2. File B-01: Foreign

A/N: All right, time for another chapter! For those who don't know the time this story is taken place, It is taken place in the "A Canterlot Wedding"-"Crystal empire" era, except this time Chrysalis won't get blown away like Team Rocket (which was lame for such a badass villain who pwned Princess Celestia), it's gonna be much more excited than that. (MGS4 fans: *Hint*: Wedding; sounds familiar?) Anyway, Here's your story, enjoy! BTW: My younger brother is now officially a brony.

* * *

_"Great Haven, huh? What's so great about it?"_

* * *

2015, Equestria, EverFree Forest

It was another ordinary day in Equestria; the ponies were having their usual morning picnic at the grass field.

They were having their usual chit-chat, talking about literally anything that popped up in their minds.

"Hey, have any of you seen the weird white flash yesterday?" The purple unicorn asked.

"Nope, didn't see a thing," The blue pegasus answered," Twilight, you must be having your usual hallucinations from reading too much fantasy novels again."

"No, there is no way that it's a hallucination, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, raising her voice a bit," Maybe it's some sort of magical beings."

"Twilight, just relax, there's nothing to be worried about. Even if that whatever white flash you saw was actually there, I know Princess Celestia would have it all taken care of."

Rainbow Dash was literally blabbering to herself, since Twilight was not listening.

She was still thinking about the white flash.

Until a small purple dragon came running towards them, and he was carrying a royal scroll.

"It's a letter from the princess, Twilight," The dragon said," She wants you to read it to everybody."

"Ok Spike, hand me the letter."

Though she told Spike to **hand** her the letter, she then used her horn to levitate the letter out of Spike's hand and precedes to read it, and Spike wasn't so happy about that.

"Dear Twilight Sparkles, you and your 5 friends have been invited to participate in the upcoming Royal Wedding of Canterlot. Please arrive in Canterlot within 2 days, Here are the instructions, I hope you and your fellow friends can accomplish them."

"Yay a party!" a pink pony screamed as she started hysterically bouncing around, "I LOVE PARTIES!"

"It's not a party, Pinkie Pie," Twilight corrected, "It's a wedding."

"Ok, but I still LOVE PARTIES!"

Twilight face palmed/hooved, obviously annoyed by her pink, energetic (& hysterical) friend, and continued reading the invitation.

"..." Twilight's expression dampened as she read the invitation.

"Who's wedding is it?" the orange-colored pony wearing a cowboy/cowgirl hat asked.

"My brother's..."

"Your brother's getting married? Congratulations, Twilight, that's great news!"

"Yeah, _great_ news." Twilight muttered with slight sarcasm, "That I just got from a wedding invitation! Not from my brother, but from a piece of paper! Thanks a lot, Shining Armor. I mean, really, he couldn't tell me personally?"

Twilight grabbed a sandwich, puppeting it as Shining Armor, "Hey, Twilight, just thought you should know I'm making a really big decision that changes everything. Oh, nevermind, you'll hear about it when you get the invitation."

Then she snorted, "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza? Who in the hoof is that?!"

"Uh...Twilight?" a shy yellow pegasus asked, "are you ok?"

Twilight calmed down a bit, "Sorry. It's just that Shining Armor and I have always been so close."

She then turned to the rest of her friends, "He's my B.B.B.F.F!"

Everyone stared at Twilight, confused.

"Big Brother Best Friend Forever?" Twilight added.

"ooooooohhh..." everyone chirped in union.

" So you all get to help with the big fancy wedding," Spike muttered, "but _I'm_ the one who gets to host the bachelor party! I have just one question. What's a bachelor party?"

Everyone laughed in union, except for Twilight.

"Ok, never mind that." Twilight muttered, "Here is the plan…"

"Rarity," she read, "you will be responsible for designing the dresses for the bride and her bridesmaids."

"Princess Celestia wants me to-" Rarity, the curly-haired white unicorn, breaks down into gibberish," ...wedding dress? For a Canterlot wedding... I, ah, ooh, oooh!"

Twilight face-hooved herself.

"What the hay is that?" the orange pony asked once again.

Twilight sighed, frustration written all over her face.

"Now what, Applejack?"

Applejack pointed (with her hoof of course) toward 5 walking creatures.

They were bipedal, wearing some sort of armor and helmet, and each carrying a long metal thing with handles, and they noticed the presence of the ponies.

They slowly approached, raising their long metal thing.

"I don't like those guys," Rarity said, "It looks like that they are not-"

Suddenly one creature holding the long metal thing fired, the tip of the long metal thing flashed, and it struck a tree that was right next to the 6 ponies, planting a deep hole into it.

"RUN!" Fluttershy screamed (Her scream about the volume of an average talking pony).

Turning 180 degrees around, they ran/flew head first into the forest.

As they ran/flew, they could hear the soldiers chasing after them, shouting.

Twilight and her friends ran/flew as fast as they can, and slowly, the shouting of the creatures faded.

"Guess they gave up," said Twilight," we are safe, for now."

They rested for a while before going back to Ponyville, on a different route of course.

"Hey, where's Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked, noticing the other pegasus was missing.

"Oh Celestia… This is not good…"

* * *

Fluttershy flew as fast as she could as she attempted to shake off the 2 creatures at her tail.

One of the creatures raised his long metal thing, and fired.

Fluttershy only saw a flash of white, before she felt horrific pain as the bullet pierced one of her wings, she crashed, skidding on the ground before coming to a complete stop.

Before she could do anything, she saw that the 2 creatures have already caught up with her, shit-eating grins on their faces.

The pony tried to cry out, but fear caused her to only gape her mouth open in a silent scream.

The soldiers closed up on her.

She had no place to hide.

* * *

The recent couple of seconds, minutes, or hours, felt like years.

I opened my eyes, and found myself surrounded by scattering blue butterflies.

Attempting to ignore the bizarre scene in front of me, I pulled myself up.

I was glad that my body was no longer "on fire", though something still hurted inside, like the diminishing pain after that "surgery", a memory of pain.

I un-strapped my Mosin Nagant, held the rifle in my hands, and moved on.

Though I was still sort of freaked out due to the fact that I had no idea where the hell I was, I decided to take a little walk, while seeking for potential help.

It was a while before anything happened.

I spent most of that time trying to mentally come to grips with just how strange a turn this mission, and all the possibilities of failing this...

_All those damn missions I completed, I'm not gonna let this one drag my winning streak down._

There was something really special about this forest, unlike other ordinary forests.

It gave me this weird, tingling, yet highly refreshing feeling.

But hey, no time for that, I was lost in a forest for god's sake!

I was going anywhere worth going to, or I was simply getting more and more lost in a forest that looked at times like it wanted to make its breakfast, with me being their main course.

My thought was interrupted by 2 people laughing in the distant.

Then, I heard a quiet, yet piercing scream.

I raised my Mosin Nagant and held it steady, checking my immediate surroundings for danger.

Nothing met me but a second scream, not as loud yet more frightened sounding than the first, like a whimper.

This time, it lasted about a second before it was drowned out by a harsh human voice.

I quickened my pace, following the source of the sound.

The first sign of any life in that forest, besides myself and the previous laughter, was a terrified scream.

Things weren't going so well.

I walked through a pile of trees and saw the two soldiers, they had their backs on me, hopefully un-awared of my presence.

Alerted, I blended into the bushes.

Instead of the UN symbol I expected on their uniform, they have this strange, black, eclipse-like badge.

They appeared to be really interested in something, so I decided to take a look.

Turning my Solid Eye on, and in binocular mode, I magnified my vision.

Through the Solid Eye, I saw a small yellow coated pony lying on the ground, shivering, a thin streak of blood ran down one of her wings from a bullet wound.

It had a long, curly pink mane, and a pair of wings.

A pair of wings!?

_Looks like the hallucination symptom of that "surgery" didn't went away yet, _I thought, attempting to calm myself down.

Pulling out my stun-knife, I lightly tapped my arm with its tip, hoping to wake myself up.

The slight, but realistic pain answered my question, I was not dreaming.

The scene was quite bizarre, but I was good at recovering from bizarre scenes.

One of the soldiers started approaching the small Pegasus.

It muttered some gibberish to his comrade, pointing at the shivering pegasus, a big shit eating grin on his face.

I either didn't care, or infact, didn't understand a word.

Until half a second later my brain kicked itself, translating the gibberish with a few crappy Arabic I learned back in the Middle-East.

Not a pleasant meaning.

The soldier then aimed the rifle toward the wounded pegasus, leveling it at its head.

Only a thunderous roar from his comrade stopped him from perforating the pegasus's skull.

His comrade stood 7 feet tall, fairly tall as I saw his dark grey, almost black, combat vest.

I faced countless PMC's in combat, but these, especially this soldier, was like nothing I've seen before.

A surge of coldness suddenly grabbed my innards, yanking me away from the scene while silently telling me to stay out of it.

The coldness overtook me, and I was on my way to withdraw.

The soldier instinct.

I was already on my way to retreat, until I heard another sharp, and somewhat familiar scream.

It was coming from the Pegasus.

Though it was as silent as ever, it still sended chills down my body.

That pony - that _child_ - was fully aware of what was happening to it, knowing that its short life was coming to a brutal end.

It wasn't my problem, and it wasn't a part of my mission, but nevertheless, I couldn't let that stand.

I can't leave anymore children out there to die.

* * *

2014, Middle-East, under-ground warehouse

"Okay, light em' up!" Captain shouted.

Orrin and Sita set their C-4's up against the side of the warehouse and rigged explosives on the thick front doors.

They blew off with a surprisingly muted thump.

"We have twenty minutes before the choppers will be getting ready to come back for the pickup," the Captain continued as he led us into the warehouse, "so everyone move, move, move."

Gage, Felicia, Sita, and Orrin all ran with him.

The next obstacle was getting another door down; Orrin quickly wired it up.

Another explosion later and we're through.

"Think we can risk the elevator?" I asked, ignoring a distant explosion from the distant war field.

"Backup power is still running," Gage said, "Think we can."

There were two more thick metal doors to blast.

But there was no one to worry about the alarms we continually set off.

So it all went fast.

The final explosion revealed a long tunnel with flickering lights, thick bars of shining metal piled up to our right, stacked up as high as my chest.

"Jackpot." Orrin muttered, licking his lips.

Each sub room was filled with the gold bars, all here for the taking.

We moved quickly, loading the empty ammunition chests in the back of our Captain's hind with the precious metal.

They filled up quickly, and there was a rare lightness in the air as we cracked jokes and imagined what we'd do with our share.

The chopper literally groaned with gold.

"Any more and she won't fly." Gage warned.

"There's just one more room. We'll get a few more chests in here, then we're done." the Captain insisted.

Back under the warehouse we detonated the door to the last room, coughing and hacking from the dust that had been kicked up.

Shadows filled the room, shifting and moving as the lights struggled to come on.

Then the lights quit flickering and steadied, and we realized that the shadows were still moving.

They were human-shaped shadows.

A hand reached out and grabbed mine.

"Are you here to save us?" a tiny voice asked, and I looked down into the large, wide cyan eyes of a little girl.

"Thank god you came." said an older man, a school teacher who'd been chosen to stay with the children while the militia's armed up and marched down street to fight the Praying Mantis PMC's.

That had been days ago.

The entire group was camped out in the last gold storage room, spreading out what supplies they had on towels on top of more wealth than any of them could have ever have previously imagined touching.

"We've seen what they've done to the other places," the little girl said, a small drop of tear formed in her eyes.

"We got as deep under-ground as we could. The others had already left the city. There weren't many children left by the time the PMC's were actually here."

They were not nearly deep enough.

But I didn't say a thing.

"Just hold on a second, sir, we need to confer a moment."

Gage had frozen in the center of the room, but moved when I approached.

"What the hell do we do?" I hissed, "We can't just leave them here."

"I don't know," he whispered back, "But what _can_ we do?"

"We have a spare chopper..."

Captain cut me off, "Let me think. In the mean time, get those last three chests up to the hind."

"And how are we going to explain _that_?" I asked, a bit louder than I intended.

Felicia waked over to the open door that led to the room the children and their caretaker were in.

There were thirty of them, I figured, from a quick head count.

"I'm Felicia, I am a UN operative. We're here under orders to retrieve the gold, as part of the necessity to fund the war effort against the PMC's. You'll have to understand, these orders are our first priority. In the meantime, if there is anything you need, food, water, we'll provide that to you as we try to think about how to safely get you people out of here."

"Thank you," the teacher smiled gently, "Thank you so much."

Orrin and Sita had finished loading the hind.

I pulled Felicia back farther away, "We need to call in extra choppers."

"Don't tell me what we need to do. If we drag them out now they will be turned into swiss cheese. We'll give them food and water, but we're not dragging them outside until we had time to think."

"Think about what?" Sita asked, joining us, "You're not seriously thinking about taking them out?"

I was horrified, "How can we not? Those are children!"

"They're dead," Captain muttered coldly, "They're dead the moment they chose to hole up down here."

Gage and Orrin looked into our direction, paying attention to our body language.

"What the hell is the point of being a soldier if we can't protect anybody?!" I snapped, my burning homeland flashed through the back of my mind.

Before I recalled what Snake asked me.

_When was the last time I'd talked to a civilian?_

Maybe I'd spent too long being removed from civilization.

Maybe we all had.

But I still had a heart.

I knew what was right and what was wrong.

"We can't abandon these children to the PMC's, enough of child soldiers," I said, "I'm a human being, not some damn, cold-blooded, ID-controlled PMC soldier, I refuse."

"If you refuse, that's a problem." Captain growled, having his PM pistol raised slightly.

Felicia stepped forward slightly, trying to regain control of a situation going bad, quickly.

"Shut up, all of you. We can save some of them, just take less gold."

"How much less gold? How many of them will fit?" Captain snarled, "You are willing to do that kind of bloody math?!"

Captain finally raised the pistol high enough to slide his finger into the trigger.

I saw through Felicia and Gage, they were thinking the same thing as I was, just not standing up as I did.

"I'd relax a bit if I were you, sir," Gage said, "We'll do what we have to do."

"What we have to do is get them out," I insisted, "We're going to have to leave the gold. The plan can't go forward."

Captain raised the pistol, aiming towards me, and the little girl beside, "No one's leaving any gold."

"There's not enough gold in the world to make this worth it. You'll wake up at night thinking about these kids you condemned to death for your own greed," I said, "It's not worth it."

"It's worth a try." Captain snarled, I saw what's in his eyes.

It sounded like the 2 shots happened simultaneously.

My body armor crumpled as it absorbed the shock.

A bullet slapped me to the ground.

I was bleeding from my leg.

But something didn't seemed right, I heard 2 shot, but only one struck me.

Horrified, I turned my head right.

The little girl laid on her back, holding her chest, blood pouring through the wound as she writhed in pain.

She suddenly grabbed my arm tight, squeezing hard, her teary cyan eyes looking into me as she whimpered in pain, then stopped.

Everything stopped for a second, before Orrin broke the silent.

"Sir, we just got a distress call from Rat Patrol 01, they said they were ambushed by FROG's."

The Captain nodded, and signaled his comrades to go out.

One by one they left, Gage shook his head, placed a hand on his head, and followed.

Felicia stared at me, then at the little girl, seemed to held off a tear, and took off.

I laid on the ground, motionless as the Captain walked up to me.

"That was the most useful thing you've done in the past three weeks, maggot." he snapped coldly, and left me on the ground.

I was the only one left.

"Sir?" the school teacher looked at me, eyes wide in fear.

I struggled back to my feet.

"Stay here. For now, just...stay here," I told him, "I have to arrange how to get you out here safely."

I limped toward the elevator, tears in my eyes.

...

* * *

The "investigation mission" was long gone from my mind.

I spranged back into the bushes.

_The mission, was to make sure these motherfuckers regretted the second they laid their fingers on that pegasus._

_The plan,_ I grinned to myself, _was to take their precision jihad, and turn it into an embarassing, memorable clusterfuck._

I went into position, withdrew my Mosin Nagant, and took aim.

the solideye's friend or foe indentification system tagged the soldiers with a dangerous red, B. Sun.

The only thing I knew about the "Black Sun" was that they invented the octo-camo, called chameleon suit at that time.

They were like "the melting pot" PMC, with a variety of soldiers from different countries, most likely defectors from various other smaller PMC companies.

And if I was correct, they completely evaporated from the face of the earth after "Shadow Moses", dissappearing right before NORAD's radars during their potential "assult" on North America.

Though it has been ten years, I was still suprised by how fast they were able to set up their little shop here.

The pegasus was tagged "?" with a cautious yellow; as expected, the solideye did not understand the basic concept of "adorableness", which was understandable considering the unlikeliness of encountering that kind of thing in the middle of a warzone.

Holding my rifle as steady as possible, and slightly regretting that I didn't bring any pentazemin, I took careful aim.

I felt almost elated, like a ghost.

_"Perhaps we can still have some fun with it before we blow its head up."_ the other soldier suddenly blurted, sneering in Arabian.

He then pulls out a stun-knife, a shit-eating grin plastered over his face.

I transferred my target to the soldier holding the stun-knife, disgusted by what he just said.

His comrade shook his head and snickered, before dropping the wriggling pegasus onto the ground like what a kid throwing away a worn-out toy.

The Pegasus curled into a ball and shivered as the soldier approached her, stun-knife buzzing with the hundred-volt electricity.

I aimed at the soldier's neck, controlled the shaking, and fired.

* * *

_"...I beg of you, grant me the strength to take this... final prey... let me linger in this world just a little longer. I have already slept enough for one lifetime... enough for an eternity, you have my thanks. I have to thank you... for waking me, if you hadn't shown up, my sleep would have been eternal... do you hear me, Snake? I am The End; I am here to bring you to your ultimate fate. You will make a fine quarry for my final hunt."_

* * *

The sound of a suppressed shot was followed by the collapsing of the soldier.

I quickly strapped my Mosin Nagant back on my back and pulled out my MK.2 pistol.

I darted forward, quickly, quietly.

When the second soldier heard the weird choking sound from his partner and turned, he had just enough time to see my looming eye glinting in the darkness of the forest before his eyes met with the cold barrel of my pistol.

"Hands up…" I growled as I slowly approached him, my MK.2 pointing dead-center at his forehead.

The soldier obeyed, yet defiant.

There is something really strange about the soldier's eyes.

Instead of the usual colors, his pupils were blood red, fairly abnormal.

_"Who are you guys, and why are you guys here?" _I spoke with Alaskan-accent Arabian, which seemed somewhat acceptable.

_"The boss's plan is already in progress, you are too late."_

_"Who is that boss you are talking about?"_

_"The devil, of the black sun."_

I thought briefly, barely understanded a thing.

The soldier suddenly barreled towards me, only a few meters away, anger and hatred burning red in his eyes.

As if simply swatting a fly, I side-stepped, working my way around, planting a dart into each of the soldier's knee cap.

The tall human fell.

He struggled to lift himself - beaten, yet defiant.

Unable to stand, he rested on his knees.

_"Still got some fight in you, soldier?"_ I muttered, _"I mean, really, what makes you PMC thugs think you're damn special anyway? What gives you the right to do the things you do?"_

The soldier stared up to me, his eyes hissing red.

"_There is honor in our path,"_ he begun, in a strange and most certainly different tone, _"Them...their kind...ponies? They're nothing but a disease that must be wiped clean from this place, from the reality- a taint upon..."_

_"Well-this 'disease' ain't going nowhere. In fact, seems to me, it's right up in your goddamn face and there ain't much a damn thing you can do about it."_

I eyed the pegasus, it's still there, not a hallucination.

_"If we were to meet in battle as __warriors_-_ true warriors,"_ the soldier hissed, "_you would fall, to our swords and fire, under our boots._ _But you- you are not a warrior. You are an assassin. Weak and timid, you hide in the shadows..."_

Says the shit-heel who invented octo-camo.

_"Yeah, you're noble._ _But how noble is killing someone, or something, without a convincing reason?" _I tapped him across his temple with an open hand, _"Answer that."_

_"Their influence must be expunged- eradicated- from our world that fouled with their idea's very presence- peace, love, they are nothing but an illusion- a distraction from reality."_

I really don't like this guy, I tightened my grip on my Mk.2, slightly raising it.

The soldier apparantly knew, _"I fear not the world beyond, I embrace it."_

Though struggling to keep conscious due to the tranquilizers, the soldier's eyes welled with pride as he spoke, _"For I will be resting in the great haven."_

_"Great haven, huh?" _I huffed, _"what's so great about it?"_

The soldier stared directly into me, making eye contact despite the fact that part of it was covered up with my solid eye.

_"You will never-"_

In a blur of motion, my hand flicked forward, bashing the soldier's head with the barrel of my Mk.2.

The soldier shuddered and lurched.

He lunged for his head, more reflex than an actual attempt to defend himself.

I stood motionless, holding my ground.

I maintained my stance for a moment- looking down at my recent victim with disgust, then stood up.

"It was a rhetorical question, arsehole." I spoke, in english, my voice carrying a mixture of disdain and boredom.

I removed my eyes from the two unconscious soldiers, and turned my attention towards the pony.

The pegasus was still curled up in a ball, still there, not a hallucination.

I don't know what exactly was wrong with me or what, but it seemed, real, which I found hard to believe.

I knelt down beside the pegasus, and waved my hand infront of its face.

The pegasus flinched and whined, probably mistaken me as the soldier.

"Hey, It's alright now," I said," I'm not one of them so, no worries."

The Pegasus slowly raised its head, revealing its face.

It stared at me with its big, teary, cyan eyes.

I immediately felt the impact, that two similar pair of eyes flushed through my head.

I shook my head to clear them, attempting to stay focused.

Than something even more bizarre happened, it talked.

"Thank you…" the pegasus said, in a voice of a young girl.

Apart from the unbelievable fact that the animal was speaking English, was the animal herself.

It was not common to find a yellow pegasus with three butterfly tattoos up her ass in Alaska, that is, if pegasus even existed.

Attempting to calm myself down, I continued talking with the pegasus, which I found somewhat stupid, and mad.

"So, ur...what's your name?"

"Fluttershy…" She answered in a voice so small that I almost missed it.

I was surprised, the pegasus has a name, which brings up another question.

Why did I asked for her name?

"What are you doing here, it's not safe for a young filly to be out here, you know…"

"I was having a picnic with my friends, and then they came…" She said as she pointed her hoof toward the unconscious, and perhaps alive soldiers.

"I got separated from my friends…" She continued as she started quietly sobbing as her eyes becoming teary, again.

It was hard to watch, and I felt like crap.

I guess it was a sign of me regaining sympathy, which was not a common emotion for operatives.

"Look, uh..." I attempted to comfort her, "I'll try to help get you back to your friends..."

I can barely believe what I just said.

I was undergoing a lot of conflicts, my cold operative instinct half told me to get the hell out of here, while my apparant other half, the warm half...

I noticed that I was already starting to soften up.

Upon hearing what I said, the pegasus smiled, which I found, cute.

Yes, cute, I just used the term "cute", for a cold-blooded operative like me, it was not suppose to be in my dictionary.

"Do you know the way out?" I asked, totally expecting a "no". Until…

"Yes."

She said, with a louder but still small voice.

"Um, I know that I'm supposed to escort you, but I don't quite know the way out, can you…"

"No problem." She said, finally at the volume of an average talking person.

The bullet wound on her wing was small, which could only be from a slight scratch, she was lucky, damn lucky.

But I still found myself nervous, worrying, suprised at how I was manage to get attached to this pegasus in such a short amount time.

"Hey," I muttered, "You sure you're ok?"

"Yeah..." she replied, her voice carrying a strange calm.

It was a weird idea, but I decided to follow her anyway, at least I would no longer be crashing my way around like a headless fly.

Two seconds after we started walking, Fluttershy stopped.

She turned her head around, and grinned a happy smile at me, with a squee.

I almost exploded.

* * *

2014, UN staff living quarters, Cyrus's room

I woke up; my head felt like it has just been stomped over by a gekko.

I got up slowly, before noticing that I was still wearing the bandana.

I attempted to pull the bandana off, but it wouldn't budge.

It's like the bandana just sort of grew into my head.

_I'm really in some deep sh…_

Before I could finish, I heard a knock on the door.

It was Otacon.

"Um, Cyrus? Where did you get that bandana?"

"Oh, Snake gave it to me, before he…" I didn't want to finish the sentence.

"Oh, ok. The bandana really fits you, though."

"Thanks."

Otacon stared at me for a long time; I was slightly disturbed by that.

"Otacon, is there something wrong?"

"You look just like him…"

* * *

2015, Equestria, EverFree Forest

"There they are," Fluttershy said," I hope they are not too angry at me…"

The scene in front of me was bizzare, five of them, _"Purple Horn", "Cowgirl", "Rainbow Mane", "Pink One", "Curly Hair"._

_Ponies_, I presumed.

At the sound of our entrance the rainbow-haired blue pegasus turned, almost bored-looking, and shrieked an unintelligable warning when it saw who, or rather, what I was.

I held up my hands, palm facing outward, and yelled as loud as I can, "I came in peace!"

This was madness, and a true irony, after facing the elite soldiers of the PMC's, I was surrendering to a herd of ponies.

"Fluttershy!" the purple unicorn screamed, "Stay away from that...creature!"

I had no idea what I should do, until Fluttershy came to my defense, apparantly we swapped roles.

"Stop!" she shouted, with an amazingly high tone (little louder than an average talking pony)," He is not one of them, he's a friend!"

"How do you know?" the blue pegasus yelled as it flew straight towards me.

It leveled up its face until it is at mine.

"Listen, stranger, if we find out that you did anything funny to our dear friend. You, are, DEAD!"

I don't like this pegasus, and being surrounded by talking ponies was not the most logical thing ever...

"Well, just look at his cutie mark!" Fluttershy said as she pointed her hood towards my UN badge," It's different from their cutie marks!"

_Cutie mark..._

_Cutie mark?!_

_Once I figured how to get the fuck out of here I'm ordering a psych exam._

"Girls, I think Fluttershy is right," The purple unicorn said," He might be a friend."

I finally knew that I've been surrounded by females for all those time.

_Sure, homosexuality was quite common, but is it common for horses?_

"Oh, so you are a friend!" the pink pony happily said as she started bouncing around me," I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name? Do you like parties? I LOVE PARTIES! In fact I like parties SO much that I can go set one up right now!"

"Pinkie Pie, just stop!" The purple unicorn said as she then turned to me.

"Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkles, what's your name?"

"Cyrus." I muttered, feeling stupid talking to ponies...

"Cyrus? That's an interesting name…"

I couldn't find anything interesting about my codename, so I ignored that comment.

"So, what happened?"

"I was minding my own business when suddenly by some miracle I ended up here." I muttered in a low grumbling voice.

"Really? That might explain the white flash last night."

I had no idea what she was talking about, until the lightning sparks on my suit yesterday hit my mind.

Then suddenly, the orange pony somehow grabbed my hand with her hoof, and started shaking my hand like crazy.

"Please to meet yah, Ah'm Applejack!" she said in a rich, Southern-accented voice.

I thought my arm was about to shatter, apart from wondering how the hell did she grabbed my hand with her hoof.

Right after she finished shaking my hands, the white unicorn with purple mane approached me.

"I'm Rarity, a fashion designer," She said," You are indeed wearing a very interesting looking suit."

I looked down onto my sneaking suit, noticing that it's now in a leaf-green color, instead of its original dark blue.

_Uh...not what it's supposed to looked like._

I pinched my waist, signaling the octocamo to return to its original color.

Rarity was amazed as my suit turned back into its dark blue origin.

"Amazing," she said," I've never seen anything like this before."

"Octocamo," I said," didn't know it was on."

"Show-off..." The blue pegasus muttered to herself.

Before Twilight could introduce me to the blue pegasus, The blue pegasus herself did.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, THE BEST FLYER OF EQUESTRIA!"

_More like Rainbow Brag…_ I thought to myself.

A real irony that she previously called me a "show-off".

"Ok, Rainbow Dash, that's enough," Twilight said," and finally, I'll introduce you to…"

"Fluttershy." I finished the sentence for her.

Twilight is slightly surprised.

"She told you her name, didn't she?"

"Yeah, so?" I didn't see that there's anything wrong with that.

"She almost never introduces herself to a stranger." she said, confused.

I looked at Fluttershy, the same level of confusion plastered over my face.

She quickly turned her head around and muttered something to herself.

"Ok? I guess that was a little unnecessary. Anyway, do you know any towns or villages nearby?"

"Yeah," she replied," We are going back to Ponyville anyway; you want to come with us?"

Since they were my only guides, I don't have a choice.

"Ok."

Fluttershy inhaled, and lets out a small "Yay".

I almost exploded.

* * *

2014, Middle-East, UN-mother base

I sat down, struck dumb by what happened a couple of hours ago.

_Is it really worth it?_

_Is it a fair trade?_

"Cyrus..." My thought was interrupted when Captain showed up, calling to me.

"Captain! Sir!" I stood up in a crisp salute, before decreasing my volume, "Sir, sorry about-"

He raised a hand, cutting me off.

Captain stared hardly into me and said in a strange, gentle voice, "Walk with me, son."

We walked down the hallway, an odd pair.

Captain fished his pocket, and took out a cigar, "Care for a smoke?"

I was suprised, shaking my head.

He nodded, before chewing on the cigar and lighting it, "Ah, it's hard to remember that you guys are still boys."

He pointed to his burning cigar, "Filthy habit, this, don't start young."

"Yes sir."

He stared at me for a long time, and sighed, shaking his head

"Sir?" I was slightly disturbed, I've never seen Captain like this.

He walked up closer to me, "I think the children I've condemned to death would haunt me for the rest of my life."

I saw the uneasiness in his eyes.

It was hard for him to say all those, I knew it.

"Sir, there are...ways to redeem ourselves..."

Captain gave a deep sigh, "I hope so..."

* * *

2015, Equestria, Ponyville

"Well, here we are!" Twilight said as we entered a strange town.

As I entered this town full of talking ponies, reality was completely shut down, replaced by, well, apparantly, fantasy.

"That," Twilight introduced, "is sugar cube corner."

I stared at a gigantic gingerbread house, completely shocked despite I gave up on reality.

"So," Twilight turned towards me," What do you think?"

"Just amazing…" I can't really say anything now, too much, too much damn semi-accurate info.

As we continued the tour, I heard nearby ponies murmuring to each other while looking at me.

I was not surprised at all.

If a talking pony magically appears out of nowhere in my world, I think people were going to have the same reaction, perhaps more violently.

My thoughts were interrupted by a distant mooing as if of a bull.

"Applejack?" Fluttershy turned to the orange pony, "Is there any grazing fields near by?"

"Nope," she replied, "Ain't got no grazin' fields."

"Then," she looked around, "Why did we just heard a moo?"

The ground gave a small flutter, and besides that everything seemed normal.

Until I realized that grounds don't "flutter".

The mooing was closer now, with a series of rythmatic thumps of metal.

This was familiar, it seemed like the terribly familiar scents of…

"Gekko!" I cried as one of them landed right in front of my face.

Fissures snaked through the ground as it landed, shaking me.

Pain shot up through my legs as the ground shook.

_How in the world did they get here?! _I thought, flashing back to the soldiers, _and these soldiers?!_

The gekko remained crouching on the ground for a second, before slowly raising up.

It rose upon legs of artificial, cloned muscles.

Its head was a T-shaped metallic construct, at the top of its head, a dome-shaped eye swiveled, searching for something to kill.

* * *

_When designing Rex, Otacon incorporated an element whose necessity his superiors questioned: a loudspeaker, and the ability to project an animalistic roar through it. Officially, he contended that it was designed for psychological warfare, that the sight of such killing machine roaring would cripple the morale of any enemy on the battle field, though he included it also because he thought it was cool. _

* * *

But the designer of this weapon had a far different design influence.

They wanted to put the enemy at ease, lull them into complacency, before trampling them underfoot.

I unsheathed both of my HF blades from my back, shrugging off the pain caused by the earlier shaking, pain would have to wait.

Ponies screamed and ran past me as more of them came.

There were only three IRVING's, shouldn't be a huge issue.

In fact the only issue I had were those panicking four-legged pedestrians.

Applejack brushed straight past me and landed a kick on one of the UG's, dead-centered on its leg.

I heard a small crunch in the artificial muscle, but the IRVING shrugged it off as if nothing had happened.

But from the looks of it, it was indeed pissed off.

It bellowed in anger and lowered its 2 mounted machine guns on its head toward Applejack.

Knowing that it's a chance, I leap high into the air and plunged one of my HF blades into its head.

Before it could react I latched onto its dome shaped "head" with my free hand and pulled with all my might.

I heard a series of sparks, and the UG went down flat.

Minus its "head".

_Luckily the mechanics are still the same. _I thought as I pulled my blade out of the T-shaped metal construct.

"That was awesome!" Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her voice, but I ignored her.

I was looking at Fluttershy; she stared at the gekko, with a blank stare.

"Um...you ok?" I just can't stop worrying about that pegasus, for reasons I don't even know.

"Yeah...I'm fine..." she muttered, "It's just this machine seemed… so familiar…"

My mouth opened, wanted answers to her previous "answer", wanted to crave the "When's" and "How's".

But the screaming of the ponies told me this was not the time.

The "What if's" flushed through my head, knowing what might happen if I kept dallying around.

Less talk, more action.

"Alright everyone," I said," It's time to kick some gekko ass."

* * *

_"Looks like they've got themselves quite a picnic going on there." _

_"I see, so, how's the infantry?" _

_Gage leveled the binocular up once again, "Moderate, probably in the high twenties, or the low thirties. No Praying Mantis in sight, but definitely not gonna be a cake walk. We've seen worse-" _

_"Frogs or lizards?" _

_"Huh?"_

_"We got frogs or lizards running the show?"_

_Gage sucked his teeth, "Frogs, saw quite a few hot chicks out there, but no sign of gekko's, usually when one's around the other's not, don't think they like each other much."_

_"Fine by me."_

_Gage easily detected the relief in my voice, "The frogs may be a bitch to deal with, but at least they're smart, right? Smart we can predict, we can plan for." _

_I nodded my agreement._

_"These damn gekko's though," Gage continued, "They're just a bunch of overly aggressive triglodytes, start shooting at them and they lose a gasket, go all aggro."_

_"They do operate on a shorter fuse," I added, "that makes them fun, like picking on an emotionally stunted twelve year old."_

_"You were a bully as a kid, aren't you?"_

_"Me? No," I corrected, "I was the twelve year old."_

_"Ha! That teach you to have some sympathy for-"_

_"Sympathy? Shit! If getting my ass bruised every week taught me anything that was the simple truth, it's better to be the bully than the bullied."_

_Gage sneered sarcastically, "You're one enlightened individual, my friend."_

_"Hey, I tend to think I turned out okay."_

_"Well, we have an issue here."_

_"What's the issue?"_

_"I think the issue was: frogs are smart, lizards are dumb."_

_"On which we both agree."_

_"And my point-the point I was trying the make- was the frogs' strategic intelligence makes them more of an ideal opponent in direct combat, because we can make educated guesses as to how they'll react. Whereas gekko's-"_

_"You give them the stink eye," I finished Gage's sentence, "They get pissy, makes them lose their head, intellect snaps right off the god damn window."_

_"Right."_

_"Right."_

_"And for that difference in compusure, in the way they handle their shit, makes them a more dangerous oppenent at the blink-of-an-eye moment, because who know the hell they would do."_

_I gave a skeptical look, "You've been trying to sell me your 'smart equals easy, dumb equals hard' theory since boot camp, and this is like, the ninth time we had this conversation?"_

_"Whatever, let's just finish this damn conversation."_

_"You think they're the same."_

_"What?"_

_"I know what you're thinking, you think they're the same."_

_Gage nodded, "Yep, frogs, lizards, they may pose a different issue, but in the end, they're the same damn thing, enemies. Big ones. Small ones. Smart ones. Dumb ones. Who cares? just point us at them, give us some guns that go bang, some knives that cut like butter, and assloads of semi-accurate intel. We'll cut them loose, scrape them off our boots, and move on to the next batch."_

_"You're always able to make mass murder sound simple, almost poetic."_

* * *

_"Hush now, quiet now..."_

_a young mother sang as she attempted to calm down a dying girl, and a slightly older boy._

_The mooing of the Gekko's accompanied the rattling machine gun fire as the militia's fought on desperately._

_One of the Gekko's suddenly landed in the middle of the house, breaking through the roof._

_The mother said something to the older boy._

_The boy nodded, took her mortally wounded sister, stared one last look, and vanished into the warzone._

* * *

2015, Equestria, Ponyville

I pinged a frag grenade, and chuck it towards the two remaining gekko's.

The grenade exploded right into the right gekko's "face", in a blossom of metal shards and blood.

The gekko reeled at the explosion, it moved in slow, confusing circles, blood dripping down onto the ground.

A second frag grenade from my other hand clogged one of the left gekko's machine gun, and was gone in a muffled explosion.

The gekko, confused by its disabled weapon and its flame-wreathed partner, stopped.

The explosions from the two frags caught them off-guard and disrupted their sensors.

Now, still reeling from the effects, they were essentially helpless.

Not being one to waste the upper hand, I pressed the issue.

I charged forward, driven by the hatred of those un-manned weapons.

The thought of my biological mother and sister, killed, murdered, vaporized into dust by those machines.

As my blade sliced into the nearest gekko's T-shaped head, the momentary sadness brought on by the smiling faces of my family was gone, replaced by satisfaction.

...

The three UG's laid on the ground, finally silenced.

Still holding the severed "head" from the first IRVING, I gave it one last look of digust, and crushed it into electric sparkles and twisted metal shards.

I exhaled as I sheathed my remaining HF blade, the sheathe chirped in confirmation as the blade was locked back in, joining along with the other one.

Blue lights hummed on as the blades' power supplies were slowly recharged.

"I thank you for saving my town, stranger. But may I ask you for your name?" a gentle female voice said.

The nearby ponies suddenly bowed and lowered their heads.

I turned around and was caught completely off-guard.

An alicorn, with flowing rainbow mane and a shining tiara on her head, stood before me.

Under any perspective, she looked important.

On my first instinct, I did a salute.

"That's a very unique gesture of yours."

"Yes sir!" I immediately responded, until I noticed that she's not a "sir", "I mean...uh...yes ma'am."

Twilight turned to me with a hard look and did a slicing motion with her hoof across her head.

For the first time in my recent memory, I felt scared.

The alicorn blushed slightly and smiled gently, despite her gentleness I still found myself trembling, this was too much.

"I am Princess Celestia; it's a pleasure to meet you."

"...I'm Cyrus," I muttered, "A pleasure to meet you too, uh..."

Took me a while to find the actual right term, "...Your highness?"

Princess Celestia laughed softly, which I found quite soothing, I slowly relaxed my stance.

Twilight gave me a nod as I exhaled deeply.

"It's ok," she said, "Don't be so nervous."

I nodded, and lowered my arm.

"Would you like to participate in the royal wedding of Canterlot?"

_A wedding, horses have weddings, note taken._

But another thing which I found insane, was the speed of their recovery.

I've never seen any towns recovered that quick from emergency situations, in this case, sharply enhanced by the spilled gore of the gekko's.

"Please, consider this a welcome gift, and my gratitude."

I'm overwhelmed, though I was still confused with what the hell was going on.

"Yes, I will your highness."

The princess smiled lightly and left with her guards, as fast as she arrived.

I was struck dumb by what just happened, I was invited to a horse's wedding, and I accepted it.

The crowd scattered and carried on with whatever they were doing, as if nothing had happened.

"Wow, I think the princess really likes you." Twilight winked at me.

I shook my head to refresh my brain.

"Thanks. Anyway, what is this Canterlot wedding?"

"It's my brother's wedding."

"Really? Good for your brother."

"Yeah, but I don't know who Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is."

"Pardon?"

"The bride."

Twilight then turned toward her friends.

"Everyone should know what they're doing, right?"

"Yep! Ready to roll out!" Rainbow Dash cried.

"What?"

Twilight turned to my confusing stare, "Oh, almost forgot to tell you. All of us have been working to help with the wedding."

"Ok?"

"Applejack will provide catering, Pinkie Pie will set up the reception, Fluttershy will train and conduct the bird choir, Rainbow Dash will perform a sonic rainboom during the ceremony, and Rarity will design the wedding dresses."

I nodded, though I barely remembered a thing.

Twilight then turned to her friends, "Everyone go prepare and get some rest, tommorow we would meet by the train station."

"Ok!"

Everyone except me answered.

"Cyrus, " Twilight asked me," Do you have anywhere to stay?"

"Uh, no." I replied.

Twilight thought for a while...

"I have some extra rooms in my library, maybe you can..."

Fluttershy suddenly gestured herself.

"Cyrus can stay with me, is that ok?" she quietly said.

"Why, that's very nice of yah, sugar cube!" Applejack patted her friend on the back.

"Thanks…" She murmured, slightly blushing.

I stared at the blushing pegasus, trying to figure out what the hell she was up to.

"So, Cyrus, you are staying with Fluttershy, we will meet up at the train station tomorrow."

One by one, the ponies left.

Soon, only Fluttershy and I were left.

"I'll show you where my house is," she said,"follow me."

I suddenly noticed something about her wings, but I knew it was not a good idea to tell her about it.

"So, you're training birds?" I started, due to a slight boredom.

"Yeah." she replied, and fell silent.

We walked until we were far from the town center.

As we went on, I noticed that Fluttershy occasionally glanced at me, then turned right back.

Ten more minutes of this cycle wore on my nerves, and on what had to be her fifteenth glance, I called her out.

"What?" I asked shortly after her fifteenth glance.

"Um, what do you mean?" she said with a slight stammer.

"You keep staring at me," I said in a low voice.

"I just..." She looked at the ground, at her hooves as they tromped through the grass.

Despite her wings, she seldom took to the air, a fact that intrigued me.

Maybe she just wasn't that good at it.

"I've never seen anything quite like you before."

Was she coming onto me?

"And I like to make a habit out of getting to know all the new creatures I meet," Fluttershy continued.

Still not convinced that she wasn't coming onto me.

"So, um, if you wouldn't mind..."

I battled the urge to dry heave.

"...could I maybe sit down and talk with you for a while?" she asked meekly. "I just have so many questions about you, and your life, and your kind, and... well, and about everything, really!"

Oh.

Well.

Okay then.

I'm not really one for interviews, but compared to what I thought she was proposing, anything sounded golden.

"I'll think about it."

Fluttershy gave a tiny nod, and moved on.

We crossed a small bridge and came across this tree, or cottage.

Opening the door, Fluttershy signaled me to go in.

The refreshing smell of herbs overwhelmed me as I stepped in; it gives me this feeling that was similar to what I felt in the forest.

"This is where I live," Fluttershy said," it's not much, but it is ok I guess."

"Fine by me." I muttered.

"Thanks…" she blushed, again, "you can sleep on the bed upstairs."

"How about you?"

"I can sleep on the couch, I'm fine with that."

"Ok…if you said so."

For a moment we stared at each other, for the sixteenth time.

She stared at my dark brown eyes while I stared at her cyan ones.

I got this familiar feeling, which softened my soul from the inside-out.

"Well, I think it's getting kinda late," I broke the silence," So we should go get some rest, don't want to miss the train tomorrow."

"Yeah," said Fluttershy," I guess you're right."

I slowly went upstairs, thinking about that familiar pair of cyan eyes.

"Just like my sister's." I muttered to myself.

I saw the bed, it's not big, but it looks fairly cozy.

Too tired to take off my sneaking suit (It's really hard to take it off anyway), I plunged myself into the bed, as if falling into snow...

* * *

"_Fox!"_

"_Snake…..I wasted…my whole life fighting. Fighting…..was the only thing I was good at…But, at least I fought for what I believed in. Snake….I hope you can fight…for those who you love…and what you believed in. Snake….farewell…"_

"_FOOOOOOOO!..."_

* * *

"OOOOOOOOOOOOX!"

I jerked right up, it was midnight, I just had a really strange nightmare, and I was screaming the name of someone who I don't even know.

I wiped my sweat with my hand and got out of the bed, having a sudden urge to check out Fluttershy.

I went down stairs, relieved to see Fluttershy still asleep.

She curled herself up in a ball, snoring softly.

I was about to go back up when I noticed that she started flinching, then, she started dream talking.

"Mom…don't leave me…" She murmured as she extended her hoof towards her imaginary mom.

_A nightmare_, I presumed, but the something told me that Fluttershy was not having any ordinary nightmares.

"Please…Dad is gone, you have to stay with me. Please, mom…don't die…"

Small streak of tears ran down her face as she started sobbing, something was really, really wrong.

I felt like I wanted to cry too, but I barely managed to held it back.

Something inside forced me forward.

Fluttershy started flinching, more violently this time.

She squealed and jerked, as if been grabbed by an invisible pair of hands.

"Stop it…" she sobbed," We didn't do anything to you. Why do you want to kill my family?"

She suddenly twisted violently, body arching at an odd angle, before she stopped flinching and calmed down into a quiet sob.

Apparantly my body had a mind of its own, despite my small, yet existing other half telling me to get the fuck out of here and call a chopper to pick me up.

Placing my hand on her face, I wiped away her tears.

"It's okay, Fluttershy. You will be fine."

It felt, strange, and funny, I couldn't remember the last time I actually ever comforted a child, but it seemed ok.

As she calmed down, I sighed in relief.

I attempted to get up, but I couldn't.

I noticed that she did not let go of my arm.

She then snuggled into my arm and smiled lightly.

"Thank you…" she said, "mom..."

Apart from the slight embarassment of her calling me "mom", was the heart-breaking voice itself.

It felt like an open wound in my chest.

I knew that Snake once made me promise to never cry during a mission, but I guess I couldn't keep that promise anymore…

The dream she had was from some random trauma she had when she was young, no doubt.

Her previous words snapped into my mind.

* * *

_"It's just this machine seemed… so familiar…"_

* * *

I knelt back down beside her, and begun to gently scratch her behind the ear, attempting to calm myself down.

I suddenly felt I had a certain responsibility for her, a familiar feeling.

I previously wanted to rotate back to that world full of war and child solders.

Screw that.

This pegasus needs someone to back her up, I've made my decision.

I got her 6'.

Then I had a sudden urge to sing.

And I did.

_"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepyhead. Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed…"_

I had no idea what the hell I just sang, but the fact was it sounded awfully familiar.

But thinking about that lullaby gave me a brief, yet stinging headache, so I gave up the attempt to recall it.

I was relieved that Fluttershy calmed down completely and was now sleeping peacefully.

But she still didn't let go.

"Well." I muttered to myself, and shrugged.

I relaxed myself onto the couch, despite the awkward un-easiness of sleeping with a female pegasus.

She was the closest thing I got to my sister, though she was a poor excuse for one, I forced myself to consider her as one nonetheless.

Fluttershy suddenly made a muffled sound, which startled me, _another nightmare?_

She stopped.

Before I could turn my head around, her sad face melted into a heart-warming smile.

I almost exploded.

* * *

A/N: How's the story so far? Yes the lullaby should seem familiar to most bronies and pegasisters, anyway, please R&R and see you next time!


	3. File B-02: Ambushed

A/N: Important notice everyone. I think I'm turning into a brony, should I celebrate or not? Anyway, here's another chapter, enjoy and please R&R, want to see those reviews coming!

* * *

"We've lost connection with the scout team, sir."

"I see...something interesting is going on..."

"Pardon?"

"You'll see, don't worry about team Beta, they are just part of the plan, remember?"

"What plan?"

"Anyway, you know your role in the plan, do you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Alright then, don't let me down."

* * *

_"three point...one four...one five six two six...five three five...eight nine seven...nine three...two three..."_

* * *

2015, Equestria, Fluttershy's cabin

The familiar smell of fried eggs filled my nostrils, accompanied by an un-natural, yet ear-catching bird chorus.

Sunny must be cooking again, I hope she wouldn't mess up this time.

I missed Sunny's fried eggs, though they didn't always turned out well.

I missed her song.

I opened my eyes, after realizing I was still stuck in a world full of talking ponies.

I looked around and saw myself on a couch.

I couldn't remember what exactly I did yesterday, it just sort of, burned away from my memory.

"Oh Cyrus, you are awake," a gentle female voice that could only belong to Fluttershy spoke," I made you breakfast, hope they're not too bad."

But I guess I didn't forget I was still stuck in a world full of talking ponies.

I turned my slightly stiff head around, before my mouth gaped open in shock.

It was Fluttershy, except she was wearing this "unable-to-be-described-by-words-ly" beautiful green silk dress.

My central nervous system mal-functioned, I felt like a chaff grenade just exploded in my face, and I was some random electronic device.

"Cyrus?"

I closed my mouth, and blinked away the shocking effect, "Yeah, really nice dress you're wearing."

"Thanks..." she was blushing, which slightly disturbed me, "So, is it ok if you...um...try out the breakfast?"

I was originally going to have some American ration for breakfast, but I gladly accepted Fluttershy's offer, knowing it's obviously a better option.

* * *

_"Field rations are not just emergency food. For a soldier, it's a vital factor in maintaining combat efficiency. Rations are the result of concentrated research and development efforts on the part of the U.S. Military's Cooking Laboratory. Together with calories, meticulous attention is focused on balanced nutrition. Freeze-dried, the rations are easy to carry and keep well. It ain't home cookin', but it'll satisfy your nutritional needs."_

_**"**Hmmm."_

_**"**What's on your mind?"_

_**"**Well, just between you and me?"_

_**"**Sure. What is it?"_

_"I prefer rations over Rose's home cooking..."_

_**"**That bad, huh?"_

_"Yep, by the way, what's your name again? Couldn't quite recall it..."_

_"My name is S...my name is Pliskin."_

...

"_You are in excellent condition, Snake."_

"_Thanks, Rose."_

"_Uh, Snake?"_

"_Oh, colonel, what's up?"_

"_Have you ever eaten rations made from other countries?"_

"_Of course I have."_

"_Roy, please…..Not again."_

"_You will survive, Rose. Anyway, Snake, I went to the ration swap-share meeting hosted by UN, and I was really impressed with the quality of the rations in other countries. Those Japanese rations are just simply amazing, and talking about those French ones, __délicieux.__"_

"_Uh…Ok?"_

"_and it turns out that the worst ration ever is ours, America for the win."_

"_Roy…..Please….."_

"_Best food I've ever eaten in my whole life, Snake."_

"_Sorry, Snake. After Roy went to that swap-share meeting of his, this is all he can talk about. It's like he never had a decent meal in his whole life."_

"_Mind if I ask, Rose. Who does the cooking in your house?"_

"_Why, me of co- What are you getting at?!"_

"_Never mind. Uh, Colonel?"_

"_Yes, Snake?"_

"_My sympathies."_

"_It's accepted."_

"_Hey! I actually liked those American rations!"_

* * *

I stared at the plate, apple slices, and some fried eggs.

The fried eggs reminded me of Sunny.

I missed Sunny's fried eggs, though they didn't always turned out well.

I missed her song.

But something else didn't add up.

"Um, Fluttershy? Mind if I ask, but aren't ponies suppose to be vegetarians?"

"Actually we are omnivores just like you," Fluttershy replied, "normally we eat fruits and vegetables, but we occasionally eat eggs."

I ate my eggs and apples, slightly disappointed by the fact that there was no meat, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to try a vegetarian diet.

Considering I took some training in Camp _Requiescat in pace_, breakfast was around twenty seconds, fairly standard.

Fluttershy stared at the empty plate, amazed.

"Uh...something wrong?" I muttered.

"Oh...no, not at all."

A small white ball of white fur suddenly sprang onto the table, uncurled itself into a rabbit.

It glared a threatening glare towards me, very much similar to an angry drill seargant.

"Now, Angel, be nice to our guest," Fluttershy said as she approached the rabbit, "Cyrus, this is Angel. Angel, Cyrus."

"Uh…" a combined feeling of confusion and embarassment filled me, I felt stupid talking to a rabbit," Hi?"

The rabbit rolled its eyes and bounced away.

I struggled to fight down the urge to blow shit up.

I hate that rabbit.

"Oh...Oh my," Fluttershy stammered, "I'm sorry Cyrus, Angel is always like this. I hope he's..."

She stopped for two heartbeats, and her mouth again opened in a stammer.

Until I slightly raised a hand, cutting her off, and Fluttershy kept whatever apology she was cooking and no doubt ruining to herself.

"We got a wedding to attend," I muttered, "a fairly important one."

The thought of attending this "royal" horse wedding was bizarre, perhaps more bizarre than a certain screwed up AI screaming for scissors.

Fluttershy nodded in acknowledgment, and started her way outside.

As I followed her out, a small, blue flash sang pass me, apparantly out of nowhere, missing my head by mere inches.

My adrenaline sky-rocketed, and on my first instinct I dropped to the floor.

_Evasive actions, quick, take evasive actions!_ My mental self screamed into my ears, years of training told me this was a situation going bad, until-

"Cyrus, are you ok?" Fluttershy's voice was filled with concern.

I looked up, and saw a tree of birds.

_The hell..._

"Now, Mr. Blue Jay, don't dash around like that, you'll get hurt, maybe you'll hurt someone else too."

It turned out the the "bullet" was a blue jay, and his name, according to Fluttershy, was "Mr. Blue Jay".

Self explanatory.

The bird gave a small chitter and joined his "friends".

"Well," I muttered as I pulled myself back up, "that was fairly entertaining."

But it was nothing compared to what Fluttershy did next.

I heard the sweetest melody of pure silk came out of her.

A few blue jays and cardinals flew past me and begun flying around Fluttershy, followed by a couple of those larger ones, before they all flew straight forward in a direction, which I found extremely interesting.

A few cycles later Fluttershy's six-tone song stopped, slowly.

I was frozen solid for a good few seconds, before my body unfroze itself.

Fluttershy turned to me, met my gaze of awe, and blushed, "Oh...I was just...telling them to start their way to Canterlot."

"You can talk to animals." I said, a little flat than what I actually meant.

Fluttershy gave a small, slow nod.

It's gonna to take a while to process all that info.

"We should...probably...get going?" Fluttershy asked, a rhetorical question rather than a direct statement.

"Yeah."

As I turned to the distant town, something seemed familiar, before a sudden surge of sorrow struck me, a painful memory.

Fluttershy gave me another look of concern.

I returned a forced re-assuring smile, fought down the momentary sadness brought on by the scene before me, and together, we started trotting towards the distant town square.

As we re-entered the still-strange town, I realized that the ponies were no longer constantly staring at me, though a few of them made some occasional glance, it's like I was just some other regular pony.

I found it quite relieving, as I couldn't really withstand that kind of attention anymore.

The train station stood before us, funny that it wasn't recognized as one until we were really up close to it.

The five other ponies were already there, all in their corresponding "unable-to-be-described-by-words-ly" beautiful dress, Pinkie with her usual hysterical grin, Twilight apparantly reading a floating book.

"Took you long enough Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash/Brag muttered, "something going on?"

"Um...nothing really..." Fluttershy stammered.

"We're here for the wedding," Rainbow Dash continued, and quickly took a glance at me, before returning to the yellow pegasus, "not for your crappy 'infrastructure'."

Upon hearing this Fluttershy blushed, and visibly flinched.

"Rainbow Dash! That was awfully unnecassary of you!" Rarity exclaimed, "at least don't say it out loud!"

_not helping._

"On top of that, we've just arrived a few minutes ago!" Twilight corrected Rainbow Dash's previous sentence.

Apparantly after patiently waiting for three minutes in a train station, it was too much for Rainbow.

"So," Rainbow Dash, beaten, yet defiant, said, "let's get on the train already."

The train, not large as I expected, was obviously steam-powered.

We boarded the train.

Despite the fact that I was in a completely different world, I had a slight feeling of guilt-

"Today's a special day," Twilight said, as if reading my mind, "so the ride is a free one."

"So," I said, shrugging off the slight suprise, "how far is Canterlot from here?"

"Oh, it's not far," Twilight replied, "about half an hour ride."

"Half an hour?!" Rainbow Dash gasped, "that's so boring!"

"Darling, I know that you're fabulous, but I think you really should start to have some patience." Rarity said.

Rainbow Dash grunted in disappointment and took a seat.

One by one, the ponies were all in their seats.

I stood, the seats were designed for small four-legged ponies, not for my bulky human backbone, I preferred to stand.

The train lets out a jet of steam, and we were on our way.

* * *

2015, Equestria, Canterlot palace

"Is there something wrong, sister?" Princess Luna, Princess Celestia's sister, asked.

"No, nothing in particular really," Princess Celestia replied, "I've been wondering how that human, Cyrus, arrived in Equestria."

"Do you know?"

"I'm not sure, but it might be somehow similar to how Sullivan arrived 10 years ago."

"Sullivan? That pathetic weak little human that tried overthrowing us but got humiliatingly defeated?"

"Yes, and about Sullivan, his army has been very active recently. Ponyville would have been destroyed if it weren't for that human showing up."

"Wait, are you saying that Sullivan is going to…"

"I don't think so, Luna. But I can sense he has accumulated some sort of dark power…a familiar sort of dark power..."

"If it's too dangerous to host the wedding, should we cancel it?"

"Sombra's gone, Discord's reformed, and Nightmare is out of your body. We will be fine."

"But, sister-"

Princess Celestia looked into her sister's eyes with a determined gaze.

"Look, Luna, this wedding meant a lot to Captain Shining Armor and my niece Princess Cadance. We promised them that we would host it, so we really should not let them down."

"Yes, sister."

Princess Luna gave her sister a look of concern, and left.

Princess Celestia stared at the glimmering sun, before slightly grimaced in pain.

She shook her head to clear it, and shrugged off the pain.

* * *

2015, Equestria, Canterlot

"Here we are, girls, welcome to Canterlot." Twilight muttered.

I've just been referred to as a "girl", very funny.

Apart from that, I realized that something was going on with the purple unicorn, something was on her nerves.

She was literally mute during the whole ride, sharply contrasted to her constantly chatting friends.

Even Fluttershy spoke a sentence more than her, which really didn't seemed right considering she only spoke one sentence.

* * *

_"Um...excuse me...may...may I use the lavatory, please?"_

* * *

As we stepped out of the train, my thought was disturbed as I was immediately fascinated.

The castle stood tall and beautiful.

It was surrounded by a pink, glistening sphere of energy, I assumed that it's an energy shield or something.

"No wonder it's the capital..." I muttered to myself.

My fascination was cut short when I again caught a glance of Fluttershy's slightly deformed wings.

Some mean-looking ponies stared at Fluttershy's wings, and snickered as they walked past her.

Fluttershy, disturbed, hid herself within her friends.

I tried very hard to prevent myself from withdrewing my HF blade, and chop up those motherf-

"Halt!"

We arrived at the city entrance, guards stood on either side, as still as stone.

Except for one, holding a medieval looking spear, and he didn't look like a peacemaker.

"What?" I grunted, a half rhetorical statement, staring calmly into the spear blocking our way without glancing at its owner.

"According to Princess Celestia-" the leading guard started.

"Sergeant!" a powerful male voice boomed, "Where are your manners?!"

"Sir!" the guard snapped off into a crisp salute, a fluid motion considering they were ponies.

"Let the gentleman through," another voice, female, gentle, and familiar, said, "He's our honored guest."

The sergeant turned to an important looking unicorn and Princess Celestia, saluted, and returned to his position.

Soon he was once again as still as stone.

"Greetings, my dear children…and gentleman," Princess Celestia said, "Sorry about the early inconvenience."

I was glad that she added that "gentleman", for that I cannot be refered as a "girl" anymore.

"Allow me to lead everyone into the palace." the princess continued, "Please follow me."

The palace was, not surprising, extremely decorated, everywhere was saturated with colors, glass paintings, just about anything that a palace should have.

I took a quick glance at the unicorn who saved my ass, just like the princess, he looked important.

Twilight remained in her gloomy mood, and I felt the atmosphere around her was starting to change.

"Allow me to introduce him," Princess Celestia introduced the unicorn to me," He is Cyrus, the human who saved Ponyville from the 3 machines."

"He also LIKES PARTIES!" Pinkie Pie happily added as she started bouncing around, again.

_Ok, _I thought, _I like parties….kind of….._

"Cyrus, this is Captain Shining Armor."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir." I swayed a crisp salute.

He looked important to, so I wanted to at least leave a good impression.

"Pleasure to meet you too." Shining Armor replied, and returned a strange, yet recognizable salute.

_At least some pony knew how to do it._

Before I was about to ask him stuff about the wedding, Twilight muttered, in a slightly depressing voice.

"Brother, who's your bride?"

"It's Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but she goes with Cadance."

Twilight's eyes opened wide in shock, but I had no idea why the hell she was.

"Cadance, but, isn't she my…my…"

* * *

"_Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"_

* * *

"My former foal sitter?"

_This is getting interesting….._I thought.

Twilight's rage was slowly building up, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I'm sorry, sister," Shining Armor said, "It's just that I've been really busy lately. I've been given orders to reinforce our defense on the exterior kingdom region, they are possibly planning an…"

"You always have excuses!" Twilight was close to screaming now," It's like, after you've got engaged with Cadance, you didn't even know I existed!"

Then was the silence.

For a while no one talked, until Applejack broke the silence.

"Well, Ah'm starvin', isn't time for dinner?"

"Yes, my dear," Princess Celestia answered, "I suppose you're..."

"Ah'm on it, sugar cube," Applejack flinched slightly, "Ah meant, yer highness..."

Princess Celestia tried to laugh, but since we were having a frozen situation she only gave a gentle smile.

I shook my head, pressed my hand on my bandana covered forehead, and sighed.

Somewhere inside, I heard a familiar old man groaning in the same frustration...

But I guess I was probably imagining it all.

* * *

2015, Equestria, Canterlot palace

Twilight wondered in the palace, in her still depressing mood.

She couldn't believe that her brother could just leave her like that.

But slowly, Twilight's misgivings were eventually banished and she was now pleased that her brother was going to marry a loving and caring mare.

Her thought was interrupted when she saw a familiar mare with her brother.

Twilight surpressed a squeak of joy and eagerly ran towards her, "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!"

"Hm?" Princess Cadance turned to the purple unicorn, suspicious.

Twilight was in the middle of complete confusion and shock as she realized that Princess Cadance didn't recognized their chant.

That was almost too much for her.

"I need to return to my station, and Cadance will be monitoring the wedding planning." Shining Armor said.

He realized that he was a little harsh, and changed his tone, "we're both very happy to have you here, Twilight."

Princess Cadance nodded, and gave her a malevolent smile.

Twilight flinched.

* * *

Later that day, Twilight went to oversee the wedding preparations, starting with Applejack.

Twilight ticked off the cake, ice sculpture, and bite-size apple fritters as Applejack tirelessly made one after the other.

Then Princess Cadance showed up to check the catering too, Applejack offered her an apple fritter, which she insincerely called "delicious".

Applejack gave Princess Cadance a pack full of them to take with her, but when Applejack turned around, Cadance levitated the fritters into the trash, her horn flashing an odd green.

...

Twilight, incensed by Princess Cadance's ungratefulness, found Rarity and begun to describe Cadance's temperamental behaviour.

Rarity apparantly made a brown cloak for Cyrus, much of a fashion to a certain Zebra.

Cyrus stared at his cloak, than back at Rarity and Twilight, "So?"

Princess Cadance suddenly arrived at the dressing room with her bridesmaids (Lyra Heartstrings, Minuette, and Twinkleshine), as fast as the wind.

Rarity expresses her gratitude for being able to play a part in the wedding, but the Princess ignores the greeting and critically looks at her dress, and Cyrus's cloak.

"Indeed a fitting cloak," she muttered, "for peasants..."

* * *

My hand literally flew onto the handle of my MK.2.

I struggled to surpress that rage.

_The wedding dress sucked?_

_Ok._

_This stupid cloak I'm wearing sucked?_

_Ok._

_I'm a peasant?_

_Fu-_

"Maybe I should go check out the receptions now." Princess Cadance muttered, and was already gone.

"Hm, got a lot to work on with the dress," Rarity said with half pretended modesty, "I have to make sure the dress was perfect for the princess and the bridesmaids."

_Princess Cadance is a bitch_, my conclusion.

* * *

Princess Cadance then met Pinkie Pie, who presented her flamboyant reception plans.

"We're gonna have a board game, carnival music, dancing, and lots and lots of FUN!" the hysterical pink pony screamed, "This reception is gonna be perfect! Don't you think?"

"Perfect!" Princess Cadance muttered sarcastically, "...if we were celebrating a six-year-old's birthday party."

Pinkie Pie gasped, "THANK YOU!"

Apparantly Pinkie Pie did not understood the Princess's insult, and took it as a compliment.

Meanwhile, Twilight has been eavesdropping on their exchange, hiding behind a pillar.

* * *

2015, Equestria, Canterlot palace

Night time falls and Princess Luna takes over Princess Celestia's vantage point on a watchtower.

Dinner was more apples, damn…

Though the food was indeed good, but still no meat in sight.

_Guess it's time to become a vegetarian…. _I sadly announced the fact to myself.

Apart from the occasional helping hands, today was a boring day.

Meanwhile, the five ponies were sipping drinks after a day of work.

Twilight was missing.

Until the purple unicorn suddenly busted out of nowhere, obviously pissed.

"Cadance," she announced, "was the absolute worst bride-to-be, ever!"

I nodded her agreement, _Cadance is a bitch_, that I agree.

However, to my dissappointment, her friends heartily disagree with her and rationalized Cadance's "apparent" mean-spirited behavior.

"Maybe you were just being too protective of your brother." Rarity said.

Upon hearing this Twilight loses it.

"You ponies were too pre-occupied with this stupid wedding preparation!" she screamed, "maybe there shouldn't even be a wedding!"

Everyone was obviously shocked by the purple unicon's outburst, but I wasn't.

In fact, I agreed with her.

For the sake of her brother about to marry a bitch.

But something, I thought, didn't seemed right.

It wasn't natural for a "royal" alicorn to troll around like a bitch.

But the fact is the fact, Cadance is a bitch.

But looks like Twilight wasn't done yet.

The angry little unicorn turned to me, and screamed into my face, "and maybe there shouldn't even be a two-legged creature like you dallying around here!"

The screaming pony then ran off like a mad Gekko.

Cadance is a bitch, and Twilight was slowly becoming one.

* * *

Twilight sprawled on the stairs of the podium, tearfully lamenting the loss of a brother and a potential sister.

* * *

_"You can forget about being my best mare...and if I were you, I wouldn't show up at the wedding at all."_

* * *

"Maybe I was being overprotective. I could've gained a sister. But instead... I just lost a brother." Twilight muttered to herself, sobbing.

A familiar figure appeared before Twilight, it was Princess Cadance.

She slowly approached Twilight to comfort her, stroking her mane affectionately.

"I'm sorry!" Twilight tearfully apologized.

Princess Cadance's face melted into a shit-eating grin.

"You will be..." she replied ominously.

Twilight noticed that something was really, really wrong.

But before she could do anything else, a ring of green fire suddenly surrounded her and started to engulf her.

The pair of evil, green eyes from the Princess's sinister smile was the last thing she saw before blacking out.

* * *

I stared blankly into the night sky.

A lot of stuff was going through my mind, apart from that "two-legged creature" insult, I tried very hard to forget it.

_Some pony must have had a strange sense of humor_, I grinned to myself.

I suddenly felt something moving behind me, upon reflex I spun myself around.

The yellow pegasus visibly shuddered, it was Fluttershy.

"Oh, Cyrus, I'm sorry I startled you..."

"It's ok." I muttered.

She slowly took to the air, and landed beside me, before gently folding her wings.

"Sorry about Twilight, Cyrus, I think she's just-"

"Apology accepted." I cut her off, hiding my slight annoyance.

Fluttershy stopped, and nodded.

"Cyrus?" she started, "Is it ok if you can...um...tell me about you now?"

"You mean my past?" I interpreted, "that's a hell lot of stuff to talk about."

"Um, if it's fine with you."

"Fine by me." I muttered, glad that I could finally dump all those shit to someone, or some pony, "All this crap started back when I was eight..."

* * *

_"That's right...good."_

* * *

Post Shadow-Moses, Alaska, ? location

Sweat poured down the young boy's face, The small PM pistol laid quietly beside him, he was on all fours.

He can't do it.

"No need for you to go just yet..."

He slowly raised his head to his right.

A man apparantly in his early thirties stood before him, in his tight sneaking suit, his bandana flickered in the cool breeze.

He ignored a young girl's lifeless corpse, as if she wasn't even there.

"I see you're lugging a dead body around with you," the man continued, "you know she's dead, right?"

The boy nodded.

"And that's why you're trying to kill yourself?"

The boy hesitated, and nodded again.

"Alright, I suppose she's someone important to you."

The man took a step forward.

"What do you want?" the boy asked, despite his fear his voice carried a strange calm, an abnormal calmness, "and who are you?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." the man muttered.

"Which question?"

"The first one," the man took out a half smoken cigar, stuck it in his mouth, and lit it, "call me Snake."

...

"Will you tell me your name?" Dr. Naomi asked.

She made no move to squat down in front of the boy, to smile, to do anything at all to come down to his level.

Instead she remained standing, her posture neither friendly nor threatening, but simply as neutral as she could make it.

Her gaze was steady, interested.

The boy looked at her from across the room.

He was only eight but the boy's gaze was just as steady as hers, though there was perhaps a slight wariness in his eyes.

He held his body just as noncommittally as she held her own, though she could tell by the tightness in his neck that that might change any moment, without warning.

"You first." the boy replied, and then moved his mouth into something that could pass for a smile.

His voice was calm, as if he were used to being in charge of a situation.

"I already know your name." Dr. Naomi admitted.

"If you knew, why did you ask?"

"I wanted to see if you'd tell me," she said, "I'm Doctor Naomi Hunter."

She smiled.

The boy didn't smile back.

She now saw more than a trace of suspicion in his gaze, suspicion that sat strangely in his face alongside his ebony-black hair and his dark brown eyes.

"What kind of doctor?" he asked.

"I'm a scientist." Dr. Naomi replied.

"Not a sigh-, not a psy-"

"No," she said, smiling, "I'm not a psychiatrist. You've seen a lot of psychiatrists, haven't you?"

He hesitated for a moment, and nodded.

"Because of your parents' deaths?"

He hesitated, nodded again.

Dr. Naomi glanced at the documents laid out neatly before her on the desk.

His mother apparently died during a brief PMC skirmish.

His father's death, however, was highly classified, even to Dr. Naomi.

Was she right to consider him for the operatives?

Certainly he was bright and resourceful.

He was clearly tough, but at the same time, what would it do to someone to go through that experience?

Nobody knew how traumatized he was.

Nobody knew for certain what it had done- and might still be doing- to him.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

She looked at him and considered.

There was no reason to tell him anything; she could simply do as she and the Patriots had done with the others and make the decision for him, kidnap him for, as she'd started telling herself, the greater good.

But with the other children she'd in part assumed they wouldn't understand.

Here was a boy without parents who, despite being only eight, had grown up fast, much faster than her other recruits.

Could she tell him more?

"The truth is," she said, "I came to see you."

"Why?" the boy countered.

She returned his even gaze, and suddenly made her decision.

"I'm trying to decide if you're right for something I'm working on. An experiment. I can't tell you what it is, I'm afraid. But if it works in the way we hope it will you'll be stronger and faster and smarter than you could ever imagine."

For the first time, he looked confused, "Why would you want to do something like that for me? You don't even know me."

She reached out and tousled the boy's hair, pleased when he didn't flinch or shy away.

"It's not for you, exactly," she said, "I can't tell you much more. It won't be easy; it'll be the hardest thing you've ever done- even harder than what happened with your parents."

"And?" he asked.

"I decided to let you make the decision." she said.

"What if I said no?"

She shrugged, "You'd stay here in Alaska. The government authorities would arrange a foster home for you."

The boy was muted for a long time.

"All right." he said and stood up.

"All right what?" Dr. Naomi asked.

"I'm coming with you."

* * *

Later, back on board, when Naomi spoke with Snake, showed him the video of her conversation with the boy, he asked, "you're sure about this?"

"I think so." she said.

Snake just grunted.

"As sure as I am of taking any of them," she said, "at least he has a notion of what might happen to him."

"That's an awful lot of lay on a kid," Snake said, "even one who's grown up fast."

She nodded.

Snake was right, she knew.

He was different from those of others- he came into the program in a different way from the very beginning.

She'd have to remember that and keep an eye on him.

* * *

With such experience under my belt, life in boot camp seemed less of a challenge to me than it did to many other recruits.

After living through that traumatizing event I felt like I was ready for anything.

I quickly figured out the best way though an obstacle course.

I could fade quickly into bushes when on mock infiltrations.

Camouflage was a way of life for me.

There were times when I noticed Dr. Naomi and Snake standing at a deliberate distance, watching me with an expression on their faces that I could not interpret.

Once, when I was nearly eleven, Snake approached me as I ran though an exercise with the other kids.

I hesitated, wondering which team to join.

"Everything all right, kid?" Snake asked, his voice neutral.

Officically I was now No.66- a fairly arbitrary digit for recruits, but Snake never called me by the number.

He would rather call me "kid".

"Yes, sir." I said, before noticing a strange look on his face.

"Yes, Sir?" I tried again.

Snake smiled, "Don't get distracted by irrelevant ideas."

He gestured past me, at the two teams already running for the skirmish ground.

"And above all don't let yourself get left behind."

* * *

2015, Equestria_, _Canterlot palace

_Don't let yourself get left behind._

Fluttershy was silent while I poured them all out, a lot of emotions played across her face, some that even I couldn't interpret.

"Wow..." one word slipped from her mouth.

I was about to begin the second part, when I stopped myself.

I decided to find some other topics.

"Enough history lectures. Let's talk about something else, Fluttershy," I said," You did mention that 'cutie mark' thing, right?"

"Yeah."

"What is a cutie mark?"

Fluttershy smiled.

"Every pony gets a cutie mark some point in his or her life. It represented a special talent of the pony."

"So, you are a specialist in butterflies?" I gestured at her butterfly cutie mark.

"Close. I'm really good with animals, and I can communicate with them."

"I suppose I've seen that already, not bad."

"Thanks," Fluttershy said, slightly blushing, "So what does your cutie mark represent?"

She pointed her hoof toward my UN badge.

"Oh, it's called a badge. I got it after I joined the UN. It represents peace, equality, and justice."

"I think it really fits you, Cyrus."

I felt a slight tingling sensation from that compliment.

"Thanks." I said, "Fluttershy, it's almost midnight, we should probably go grab some sleep."

"Yeah," she replied," I guess you're right."

I watched the yellow pegasus turned to a corner and vanished into the palace.

There was a reason that I didn't want to continue to the unpleasant part of my story.

I preferred to keep it to myself.

* * *

2015, Equestria,Canterlot Crystal Depths

Twilight woke up, and found herself in the long-forgotten crystal depths of Canterlot.

Princess Cadance appeared before her through the reflections on the crystal walls, mocking her.

With a roar of fury, Twilight shot the taunting reflection with blasts of magic.

The wall melted away, and revealed another startled and dishevelled Princess Cadance.

Twilight immediately tackled her to the ground.

"No! Wait! Ugh! Please! Don't hurt me! Twilight, it's me! Please, you have to believe me. I've been imprisoned like you. The Cadance who brought you down here was an imposter."

"Likely story!"

Twilight was indeed pissed off.

Princess Cadance blinked.

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves..." she started.

Twilight stopped, her eyes wide open.

"...and do a little shake." they finished.

Twilight's eyes filled with tears as she embraced her _real_ foalsitter.

"You remember me!"

"Of course I do. How could I forget the filly I loved to sit for the most?"

Twilight wanted to know exactly what the hell happened.

But first they have to get the hell out of _here._

They raced for the exit, ignoring the single small yellow dot of light that blinked at them, made a screeching computerized voice, and vanished.

...

They galloped as fast as they could muster, knowing that soon Chrysalis would be aware of their escape.

Princess Cadance suddenly letted out a yelp, and dropped to the floor, blood oozed from a fresh wound on her fore-leg.

Before Twilight had the slightest idea, soldiers jumped out of their hiding spots, rifles locked on the two ponies.

"Nice try..." the leader said, "as expected, Chrysalis really isn't good at this..."

* * *

2015, Equestria, Canterlot Palace

It was a calm six hours of peace.

No nightmares.

Sleeping with my sneaking suit on has became a habit of mine.

I wrapped myself with the cloak that Rarity has given me, she insisted me to wear it, for my own sake.

As I pulled over my hood, I looked at myself through the mirror.

"Middle Eastern style, huh…"

"Looking good, Cyrus!" Rarity said, pleased by the fact that I was wearing the cloak.

"Thanks," I replied, "though I'm not sure whether this cloak is good for a wedding."

"Technically yes," Rarity replied, "as it will cover up all those vicious looking weapons you're carrying."

I grunted, but Rarity was right, if I walked in with all those stuff on me, they'd-

Princess Cadance walked past my view.

I wouldn't say she's from hell, but something was really funny about her.

She was carrying this uncomfortable, and somewhat devilish grin that even slightly stiffened me.

That's the bride.

"Hey," Rarity snapped me out of it, "time."

I shrugged, and walked into the entrance.

It appears that the cloak only drew more attention, but with my enhanced hearing, I could tell that they thought I was the, according to them, the "Ancient Witch of the Distant Land".

Damn silly name.

Well, better said than done, who knew what kind of Witch-Doctor they were talking about?

The five ponies stood beside Princess Celestia, took me a full second to realize that Twilight wasn't there.

_Maybe she's still a bit pissed off after what happened last night_. I thought to myself.

I took a position where I stayed fairly away from the crowd, and where I had a view of the whole room.

Though most certainly nothing would go ape-shit, but it wouldn't hurt to be a bit more careful.

The main entrance opened, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance slowly walked in, in their wedding dresses.

Princess Cadance carried her usual, uncomfortable grin.

But something was just a bit wrong besides that.

Shining Armor had this wierd, funny walled-eye on his face, the pupil contracted into an emerald green.

I shrugged it off, those wierd visions happen at times, a small side-effect of that "surgery" I had.

_Like when I saw Colonel Campbell holding a pair of gigantic scissors back in U.S., _I grinned to myself.

"Princess Cadance and Shining Armor", Princess Celestia announced, "it is my great pleasure to pronounce you..."

A sharp pain in my chest caught me off guard, I bent down, grimacing and choking.

Before I knew what the hell just happened, I heard a scream.

It was coming from Princess Cadance, her scream was human-like, but horribly distorted, which then turned hoarse.

Green jets of light bursted out of her body.

Her feathered wings turned into an ugly insectoid one, while her body and head turned black as chalk.

Her hooves turned into, what I would say, an "over-cooked swiss cheese" structure.

Her pink, purple, and yellow mane turned blue and messy, as 2 long sharp fangs grew out of her mouth.

And last, her eyes turned emerald green.

"What?!" she screamed, her voice an insect-like buzz, "how is this possible?!"

She panicked for a split second, then turned calm and cool.

"Ever since I took Cadance's place, I've been feeding off Shining Armor's love," she started with a classical villainous voice, "every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now my minions are chipping away at it."

Whole blobs of motion signals blinked on my Solideye, rather a little too late.

_Solideye's motion trackers should have caught them before they got close, _I silently slapped a full clip into my MK.2, though having no idea who the hell I was dealing with.

"Soon, my changeling army will break through," she continued, "first, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!"

_Typical villainous bastard. _

"No," a firm voice said, it was Princess Celestia, "You won't, Chrysalis."

Chrysalis said nothing, she walked briskly towards the Princess.

"You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell," Princess Celestia hissed , "but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self."

"Heh," Chrysalis smirked, "you really think I was foolish enough to do that?!"

"I do not care whether it was your foolishness or not," Princess Celestia barked, "I can protect my subjects, from you!"

Princess Celestia flew high into the air and shot a white beam of light towards Chrysalis, Chrysalis responded with a green beam of her own.

The 2 beams clashed.

Princess Celestia gradually gained advantage; Chrysalis appeared to be losing, _so much for her villainous plan._

But then, Chrysalis's horn suddenly sparked with vicious black lightning.

Her green beam suddenly widened and overwhelmed Princess Celestia's.

Then the bright green flash from the impact, as if from a stun grenade, forced me to cover my eyes with my hood.

The green light slowly died down.

I blinked away the white dots swarming my vision from the intensive light, before the Princess's tiara landed, and clattered beside me.

Princess Celestia laid motionless on the palace floor, the tip of her horn charcoal black.

"Princess Celestia!" Rarity gasped.

"Ha!" Chrysalis laughed, "Shining Armor's love have made me even stronger than Celestia!"

A distant explosion echoed across the room.

_They're still working on the shield, _I thought as I readied my MK.2, _god knows how much longer can it hold._

Chysalis approached the downed Princess, horn charging up once again with sticky green energy.

"You're weak and pathetic as ever," she barked, "die!"

There was a sudden moment of vertigo in my head, then a strange, ice cold mercury sensation flooded through my arteries.

Before I knew it the MK.2 was already up, and fired.

_"When in doubt," _a familiar old man's voice growled, _"Blow shit up."_

The bullet punched itself into Chrysalis's face like an open palmed slap.

The changeling queen staggered, her shot went wide and up through the ceiling.

Chrysalis snarled an insectoid growl and turned to the direction of fire, and charged up her horn for a quick shot.

The green bolt hurled itself towards me.

I stood there for a split second, then my reflexes kicked in and I rolled out of the way.

Apparantly the cloak wasn't tight enough.

It slipped off my body, floated ghostly in mid-air for a full second before landing on a surprised Pinkie Pie.

I stood back up, now in my sneaking-suit, fully armed, and slightly awkward in the face of a thousand gaping pony mouths.

Several hoarse, yet slightly high pitched growl directed from the crowd of ponies.

Two heartbeats later the whole room was full of screaming panicking ponies, and at least half a dozen of those, which I started referring to as, changelings.

_Those idiots have disguised themselves and was watching the whole damn show. _I gritted my teeth.

I raised the MK.2.

"Guns clear," I muttered to myself, "sweet dreams."

three successive shots from my MK.2 raced across the room.

Two of them caught two changelings right on their semi-canine-like heads.

They slumped down without a sound.

The last shot missed.

Then something strange happened.

The two downed, and almost certainly alive changelings were engulfed in blue, withering flames.

They made umpleasant, and almost too familiar eerie sounds as they incinerated.

"Very nice, indeed. Whoever you are, but you are just as pathetic as the Princess." Chrysalis barked, "but in the end, I'll still be able to-"

She suddenly stopped, and slightly twitched her ears.

"Sir," she said, apparantly to herself, or her "boss", "I just need a little more time, we're just about to get to the good part."

* * *

"No need to dally around Chrysalis, this is top priority." the man said, "There's something interesting I have to show you."

* * *

"But sir," Chrysalis hissed, "Can't we just have a little more-"

* * *

"Enough, Chrysalis. I suppose your changeling army is more than enough to obilerate those...ponies.

"And besides, leave the Princess alive..."

* * *

"Why?"

* * *

"I'll explain later, just let your changeling army do the dirty jobs for you."

* * *

Chrysalis grunted in anger, before turning to me.

I tightened my stance.

Chrysalis kept an eye on me, before she started drifting out of the hole on the ceiling which she blew up earlier.

"Huh, so you call your troops in to do the dirty work for you, while you just run off like a coward?"

Chrysalis ignored my comment and continued to fly out.

"My dear leader is calling me to him, so it's no time for games. I'll just my dear changelings rip you into shreds!"

"Who is your damn leader?"

"The devil, of the black sun."

That sounded awfully familiar.

Chrysalis then shouted at the top of her voice.

"Thanks to the devil of the black sun, we are no longer pathetic." she said in a voice between a cool logical statement and a badly sung song.

She spread her arms (hooves?) in a dramatic, useless angle, "my dear changelings, KILL THEM ALL! But leave the princesses alive..."

The changelings howled as they filled with dark energy, closing up on us.

Chrysalis then vanished as she flew out of the ceiling, with a maniac, villainous laughter.

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash shouted, the young pegasus shook off her dress, and crouched into a stance, "let's rock!"

* * *

The energy shield shimmered faintly as the changeling bashed at it.

A small crack appeared on the deteriorating shield.

* * *

2015, Equestria, Canterlot Palace

Sticky green bolts impacted on the walls where I was standing and splashed across them.

The packets of glowing energy sizzled.

The other ponies were long gone.

"I got em'!" I shouted, and chucked a frag grenade at the remaining four.

The grenade exploded, oddly muffled due to the changelings.

They flew high into the air, before slumped down lifeless, incinerating.

I felt it, a series of rhythmic thumps.

They're coming.

The five ponies were busy tending the Princess, with a pony that somewhat resembled a nurse.

I quickly marched towards them.

"The beam missed her head by a centimeter." the nurse-like pony murmured.

"Your highness," I reported, "room all clear. But we have to get you to a safe place ASAP."

Princess Celestia looked up and whispered, "I'm fine, really."

She pushed away from us, stood, teetered in place, before falling right back down onto the ground.

She was about to attempt again when I set her down with one hand, "With all due respect, your highness, you're not."

Another detonation rippled through the room- stronger than the earlier one.

Small fissures snaked through the palace wall.

Two pegasus guards bounded into the room, "enemy contact at extreme range."

The princess blinked, struggling to stay conscious, "The elements, you have to get to them..."

I tightened my grip on my MK.2, having no idea what "the elements" were, "yes, your highness?"

The princess nodded.

"Nurse, take care of the princess," I said, and took a quick glance at Shining Armor.

He stood there, still as stone, with his walled-eye.

"And prince Shining Armor." I added swiftly.

The nurse nodded, "understood."

"Rest of you, with me." I raised my MK.2 into a steady arim, facing the hallway, "we're gonna go welcome our, 'un-welcomed guests'."

I gave Princess Celestia one last look, marched out into the hallway, and melted into the shadows.

Rainbow Dash followed, then Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy and Rarity trailed behind.

We crept forward, smooth and silent, until I halted in front of a corner.

The Solid eye caught four targets, ten o'clock.

I darted out of my cover, and fired two shots.

The closest changeling dropped as the two rounds caught it in the center of its head.

Blue flames engulfed the downed changeling.

The rest returned fire, shooting ghostly green bolts.

Rainbow Dash bounded foreward, she ducked into the side passage.

The instant Rainbow was out of the line of fire, Applejack lept forward with a flashy round house pony kick.

The kick caught the next changeling, it twisted away, clutching its broken skull.

I fired two shots, but third changeling remained on his legs.

In unison, Rainbow Dash and Applejack kicked the changeling with their backlegs.

The changeling dropped to the tile floor in a twisted heap.

A sharp silent scream caught my attention.

I spun back.

The last changeling lunged at Fluttershy.

She squeaked and doved out of the way, and the changeling passed over her, landing on the tile floor.

I took aim and fired, but I missed.

It whipped around to strike again.

Fluttershy took to the air, beating her wings rapidly in a desperate bid to gain altitude, but the changeling's jaws snapped shut on her tail, and it tugged her back to the floor.

She landed on her belly and rolled to her back.

She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her hooves.

With a grunt of frustration, and my free hand, I unsheathed an HF blade and charged forward, just fast enough to step in front of the changeling.

The changeling bited down, so determined that its fangs would sank down into soft pony flesh that it came down on full force.

Instead its jaws sank down onto a blade of seething, high-frequency resonating energy.

I yanked my blade out of the changeling.

It slumped down, in burning blue flames.

Another explosion sounded in the distant.

"We have to get to the elements!" Fluttershy cried, "there's only five of us, but it had to be enough!"

"Where's Twilight anyway?" Rainbow Dash grunted.

"Chat later," I said, "let's get to that 'element' thing before things go worse."

"This can't possibly get any worse." Rainbow Dash muttered.

We barged out of the palace gate, and charged through the streets of Canterlot.

Ponies continued with thier panicking, but slightly calmer due to the fact that the shield still held, barely.

Rainbow Dash led the way as I stared up, my mouth gaped open at the scene.

The changelings haven't gave up yet.

They all raise, and together, brought down with full force, I could hear ten thousand changelings screaming for blood.

For a split second I thought the shield held.

But it didn't.

The shield shattered into a million pieces and vanished.

"Damn!" I cursed, "They've breached the shield, everyone go go go!"

One of the changelings barked at us, and the whole army sprang into life.

The changelings boiled in agitation- a hundred badly aimed shots arced down after us; green firefly bolts swarmed through the air.

We jinked ourselves left and right, dodging bolts as we kept our direction.

Pandemonium broke out through the whole town as the army of changelings swarmed down, a blob of black like locusts swarming the wheat field.

"My kids! Where are my kids?" a young mare screamed as she passed, helplessly.

"My leg! My leg's been shot!" another pny yelled.

"I can't find my mother! Mamma! Mamma!" a voice of a small foal rang out.

I had to steel my heart.

I couldn't go to the rescue of individuals.

There was no time.

But if we could get to those "elements"-thingy then probably more ponies would be saved than lost.

I ran grimly on, I would kill them, I would blast all those bastards to hell if I could.

_Who is this "Queen Chrysalis"?_

_Could he be actually worse than Liquid Ocelot?_

_Could there ever be a more evil guy, like that "Devil of the Black Sun"?_

The place where the "elements" were held stood before us.

A hundred meters to go.

Something burned through my back, I staggered, and dropped to the floor.

Before I knew it we were surrounded by changelings.

One of the large ones, which I recognized as the Alpha, approached us.

I struggled myself up, trying to stay aware of the situation gone bad, blood foaming at the edge of my mouth.

But I can't.

Those green sticky bolts held me tightly onto the ground.

I glanced a quick look at the other five ponies, they were stuck too, the green substances caught their hooves.

The Alpha snarled something at its comrades, his face melted into something that could pass for a smile.

A small filly was pushed in, with her parents, I assumed.

I stared at the Alpha, trying to figure out what the hell it was up to.

The Alpha snarled an order.

One of the strong looking ones grabbed the filly in one big rip with his fangs, but then her mother leaped forward, her eyes must've met the changeling's.

The changeling immediately dropped the filly, pulled the mare out and tossed her toward the other changelings.

The filly's body laid limp and unconscious beside me, and judging from the fountaining blood from her neck she was probably dead.

The others gave roars of laughter.

_The old saying always held true; laughter was the same everywhere, even for those bastards._

I could feel rage building up in me, though I was trying hard to deny the fact that I cared.

One of the changelings ripped the mare up by her leg and held her upside down.

The mare struggled to rise, trying desperately to wiggle herself free, and another changeling grabbed the other leg.

That's were I couldn't let that stand anymore.

With my remaining free hand I threw a stun grenade into the mob with full force.

The white flash painted my eyes black from the vision, but I still heard the mare scream.

Another family torn apart, I've had enough traumas for a day.

I ignored the white flares in my eyes from the aftermath of the stun grenade and pulled myself up in full force.

Then was the familiar pain, a small black hole opened up in my vision.

I was surprised that I still had that ape-shit in me, and was even more surprised when the rigid green substances tore like wet paper.

But I then realized that I didn't have control over my body.

I felt something in my body trying to push itself out, like an expanding balloon.

My feet left the ground, I found myself floating, like a ghost.

The pain was unbearable.

I curled both of my hands into fists, and my head raised itself, as if seeking some random answer from the heaven above.

I letted out a horribly distorted cry, and a blue white flash was the last thing I ever saw.

* * *

A/N: After a full day of consideration, I'm officially part of the bronyhood! Yes, this is Assassin's Creed reference. Well, I hope you enjoyed it, please R&R and prepare to get dismantled by later chapters.

P.S: There may be parts of the chapters which looked weird in structure. It's because the horizontal lines that separate the parts sometimes don't show up, I hope FanFic site admins can fix this issue, thanks!


	4. File B-03: Choice

A/N: This chapter is where you understand Cyrus's reference to "the surgery", used some "Phantom Pain" and "Halo" reference, the Spartan project, you know. But don't get the wrong idea, Cyrus is not one of those eight feet tall guys with motorcycle helms (well, their helmet does kind of resemble that).

BTW, watch the "Phantom Pain" trailer if you don't know what I meant, you'll see the similarities.

Any way, have fun reading and please R&R!

* * *

_"I'm giving you a choice, Cyrus. I'm giving you the choice because Frank never got it."_

* * *

Post-Big Shell incident, United States, Science facility

I was fourteen now, and standing at attention on the other side of Dr. Naomi's desk.

Her face, I noticed, was drawn and tight, her responses a little jerkier than usual, as if she hadn't been getting enough sleep or was overworked.

She hid it well, but with me myself being and expert on hiding things well, saw all the cues I was learning to suppress in myself.

"At ease," Dr. Naomi said, "please take a seat."

"Thank you, ma'am." I said, and sat, a single fluid motion, nothing wasted.

She was whispering quietly to herself, scanning a series of documents on her desk.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" she asked.

"Go ahead, ma'am." I replied.

"Dr. Naomi," she said, "no need to make me sound any older than I am. Do you remember when we first met?"

"Yes." I said.

Hardly a day had gone by without me thinking about that meeting and everything it had led to.

"I wonder, do you remember what I said, how I gave you a choice?"

I rubbed my forehead briefly, "You mean whether to come with you or stay in Alaska? Or something else?"

"Just that," she said, "You were young enough that I didn't know how well you'd remember. How do you feel about your choice?"

"I'm glad I made it," I said, smiling, "It was the right choice, ma'am."

"I thought we already talked about you calling me that," she grinned, "I wondered at the time whether I was right to give you a choice. Snake wondered too. Whether you were too young to have that burden placed on you."

"Burden?"

She waved the question aside, "Never mind. The reason I've brought you here is to give you another choice."

I waited for her to continue, but for a moment she simply stared at me, the same unreadable expression on her face like Snake's.

"You're still very young." she muttered.

I said nothing.

Dr. Naomi sighed, "You've trained well, all of you. But training is only the first step. We're on the verge of taking the second step. Would you like to take it?"

"What is it exactly?" I asked.

"There's only so much I can tell you," Dr. Naomi said, "There's only so much the bodies that we have can do, so we want to enhance them. We want to modify your body and mind to push it beyond normal human capabilities. We want to toughen your bones, strengthen your muscles, sharpen your vision, and improve your reflexes. We want to make you into the perfect soldier."

The smile that had been building on her face slowly faded away.

"However, there will be side effects. Some of these we knew, some we probably can't imagine. There's also a considerable risk."

"What sort of risk?" I countered.

"There's a chance, a non-trivial one, that you could die during the surgery. Even if you didn't die, there's a strong risk of Parkinson's, Schizophrenia, and Gray-Fox syndrome."

I didn't understand everything she said, but had the gist of it, "And if it works?"

"If it works, you'll be stronger and faster than you can ever imagine," she tented her fingers in front of her, staring over them at me, "I'm giving you an option that the others won't be given, I'm offering you the choice, while your classmates will simply be told they are to report for the procedure."

"Why me?" I asked.

"Pardon?"

"Why am I the one who gets to make a choice? Why not one of the others?"

She turned her gaze to the desk in front of her, her voice distant now, more as if she were speaking to herself than me, "What the operatives are is an experiment. In every controlled experiment you need one sample whose conditions are different so as to be able to judge the progress of the larger group. You're the sample."

"We're an experiment." I said, my voice flat.

"I won't lie to you. That is exactly what you are, and you, an experiment within the experiment. An exception."

"Why me?" I asked again, "you could have chosen anyone."

Dr. Naomi shrugged, "I don't know, it just...turned out that way."

I was struck mute for a long time, staring straight into my front, sorting it all out in my head.

I made my choice.

"I want to do it."

"You do?" I sensed a slight disbelief in her voice, "even knowing the risks?"

"Yes," I said, and then it came to me ,"I don't want to be left behind."

* * *

_Strange_, Naomi thought after he left.

What had he meant by not wanting to be left behind?

She shook her head to clear it.

She leaned back into her chair.

"I'm giving you the choice," she said, apparantly to herself, "I'm giving you the choice because Frank never got it."

Dr. Naomi sighed.

_I've given him a burden to live with, _she thought, _I've let him made his own choice. But, I also shifted the burden of responsibility back to him if anything goes wrong. A child, carrying my sins._

Dr. Naomi stood up, and took a deep breath, _let's hope nothing goes wrong._

* * *

_I was dreaming but even in the dream it was as if I couldn't wake up._

_In the dream I was in a strange forest._

_Apart from the chilling cold and hunger there was also something chasing me, a strange creature._

_Deformed somehow._

_As it chased me every so often it would let out a cry so piercing that it was all I could do to keep running._

_I was half asleep, until I took a wrong turn and found the path blocked._

_Then there was the creature, it plucked me up off the ground like a toy and hurled me._

_I smashed through limbs and branches and came down hard, the world around me fading to white as I died._

* * *

Post-Big Shell incident, United States, Science facility

Only I wasn't dead.

What I saw, all round me, was a strange, uneasy whiteness.

Then it slowly resolved into a piercing light.

To either side of me, dim shapes began to take form, resolving into heads, the heads themselves covered with white cloth caps, the faces hidden behind breathing masks.

Beneath those heads, the white clothing that covered their bodies were spattered and stained with blood.

Took me a while to realize that the blood was my own.

One of the heads was speaking, I saw, a low rumbling sound coming out of it, I couldn't understand what it was saying.

The other head made a similar sound.

_What's wrong with them? _I wondered, then, _what's wrong with me?_

A set of fingers hovered itself over my eyes.

I tried to follow them but could only do so slightly, my eyes always just a little late.

A head leaned closer, and suddenly became painfully defined.

"Please relax," the head muffled through the mask, it then turned to the other heads, "is he suppose to be like this?"

I felt like I was underwater, like a dream.

_This is not a dream_, a second later I suddenly realized, _this is all real. This is really happening._

Then suddenly a buzzing sound shot into my ears, replacing my consciousness with another dream.

Another nightmare.

* * *

_In this dream I was back in the burning warzone._

_I was sitting in a chair but couldn't move._

_Nothing was restraining me._

_I simply couldn't move._

_Wait._

_I could move a little, could move my eyes slowly back and forth._

_My background slowly took form._

_I realized that I was in my mother's room._

_My mother was humming the lullaby, but something was wrong._

_A strange, high pitched piping noise was mixed into her song._

_A gekko crashed into the midst, making the same, odd piping noise._

_I wanted to scream, but all I could do is to dart my eyes frantically around._

_My mother gave a low hiss and begin to head toward the door._

_I was just beginning to see her face when a sudden intense pain washed over me, as if someone had worked glass shards into my arteries._

_The dream spun and reduced itself into a small black dot and hissed out._

_Then was the whitness._

_No, slowly another small black dot appeared, it grew bigger, swallowing the whitness._

_And it swallowed me._

* * *

I woke up and found myself screaming.

I was strained, tied down onto some sort of bed.

I felt a thousand tiny knives stabbing me, my skin itching and burning.

The veins in my arms stood out and pulsing and felt like they were being slowly torn out of my skin.

I flexed my wrist and pulled the strap around it.

The pain was like a series of glass windows were shattering beneath my skin, the muscles contracted.

There were men and women all around me, in their white coats, keeping a little distance.

Except for one, trying to approach me from just behind my head, almost out of sight.

He reached out a hand, hovering it over my head.

It was strange they were all moving slowly, too slowly, something was wrong wtih them, as if they were underwater.

I ripped at the strap again and it tore like paper, and I tugged the other and both hands were free.

I was still screaming, couldn't stop.

I reached out and grabbed the hand and squeezed, surprised at how fast my fingers reacted and even more surprised to hear the bones cracking like fireworks as they snapped.

The sound was uncomfortably loud.

I jabbed my left elbow into the neck of a man on the other side, he went down without a sound.

My other hand was already working on the leg straps.

Some of them started to turn now, to flee, but why are they moving so slowly?

The pain was making it hard to think.

I lashed out, struck the nearest one with my fist, once again surprised, seeing the man's body slam into the far wall and collapsed.

I was out of the "bed" and running for the door.

But something was wrong there too, I was having a hard time keeping up.

It was like my legs had a mind of its own, I barely had control over them.

I seemed like I've stopped screaming, though sounds still poured out of my mouth, some kind of intense gibberish, words without meanings.

I barreled through the remaining white coated figures and was out in the hall.

_Which way?_ I wondered for a split second.

It looked familiar but the pain was still making it hard to think.

_What had they been doing to me?_

I reached the end of the hall sooner than I expected, slamming into the wall, crumpling it before turning left again and continued.

_Was the wall really that weak? _I thought, _probably._

Then a surge of pain burned through my head and I stumbled and went down onto the ground screaming.

Almost immediately I was up again, before a slight tingling pain caught me on my left leg, but it was nothing compared to what pain I was going through.

With a roar of anger I spun.

In front of me was a line of five, six marines, kneeling.

And there, just behind them, was the CDO.

"Stand down, soldier!" he boomed, "I'm asking you to stand down, soldier, do you comply?"

I stared down at my left leg, and saw the red dart.

The tranquilizer were starting to take effect.

I felt heavy, but the pain, which had been so intense, was slowly subsideing.

Then, just behind the line of marines, an out-of-breath Dr. Naomi.

"Don't hurt him!" she cried, "please!"

"Dr. Naomi!" I cried back when I saw her, "what have you done to me?!"

Arms outstretched, I took a step towards her and collapsed.

...

I woke up again, my wrists now in metal wristlets, each of them hooked firmly by metal chains to a ring in the wall.

I tested them, they were too strong for me to break out of easily,

As I stood, I examined my body.

Angry red scars criss-crossed on my torso, arms, and legs, most of the muscle masses were blood red, some were having contractions that I could not control.

My legs seemed okay, but the fact was that I had a problem standing straight, I thought it would be more comfortable if I used an arm for balance.

I ran the recent events through my head, though it was extremely hard to think_, I've became a monster._

I was still trying to get use to it when the door opened and Dr. Naomi appeared, an armed marine on either side of her.

"Hello." she greeted.

I stood motionless, watching her.

She then turned to one of the marines.

"I don't think I'll be needing you." she said.

"According to the CDO-" the marine started.

"This is a science facility and here, I outrank the Chief Deputy Officer," she cut him off, "I want you to leave."

"Is that an order, ma'am?" the second marine asked, his voice calm.

"Yes, it is." she said.

The second marine quickly saluted an marched out.

The other, after a moment of hesitation, followed.

"There, that's better." Dr. Naomi said, "I'm sorry about the restraints, they weren't my idea."

I stared at her for a long moment, and slowly sat down, gathering my body awkwardly under me.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I don't know." I reaplied, my tongue felt heavy, as if I was using it for the first time, "not very good, I'm having a hard time thinking."

"That's probably the meds," she said, "they had to give you something for the pain."

I closed my eyes, recalling how my body felt like it was being torn apart from the inside out, "is that normal?"

"We're still trying to figure out what normal is." she shrugged, "some people didn't even seem to have pain. While others..."

She trailed off.

We were silent for a split second.

"What happened to me?" I started.

"Your body reacted badly to the muscle enhancements and neuron injections," Dr. Naomi replied, "so basically your body tried everything it could to reject it, your body fluid's PH value soared to nine, which should be fatal."

I listened, my lips a grim line.

"We were manage to stabilize your body's PH value with mild-acid injections but, there are other problems..."

"For example?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Some parts of your body had uncontrollable muscle spasms, some so severe that they were crushing the bones. We were manage to prevent that by injecting nano-calcium-synthesizers into your bones before things got any worse. But there will still be a constant tension between your muscle and bone. It's like your body is trying to tear itself apart. The pain would be intense, most likely unbearable."

I nodded, remembering how my body felt like it was on fire.

"With the meds the pain will be bearable," she started again, "On the other hand, you're stronger than even we imagined. The straps were strong, able to hold all the other test subjects. But they weren't able to hold you."

"How many of us are left?" I asked.

"More than half," she replied, "almost half of you died."

She reached out and touched my arm, "I'm sorry."

I refused to meet her eyes, "I made the choice, I had nobody to blame but myself."

She stood up, and without a word, left.

I stayed there sitting, staring on the floor, just staring.

...

A week later I was out of the brig.

Some of the other subjects, I saw, were in bad or worse shape.

Fred had uncontrollable seizures and was confined to a wheel chair.

Kirk had the same difficutly I had, but his arms and legs were so deformed that he was no longer able to move on his own.

A few others were even worse, in a comatose and always on the verge of death.

Some how I couldn't find it pleasant to think that I was the lucky one.

After a few weeks the pain seemed to have diminished a little, though they kept me drugged enough that it was hard to tell.

The drugs did help wit the pain but I hated the confusion they caused as a side effect.

Having to plow though ideas and unable to finish a thought was starting to get as frustrating as the pain had been.

So slowly I began to scale back the meds, throwing away a few of the pills I was given, then more and more.

The pain was strong and intense but definitely slightly less when I woke up on the next day.

I found out that I could stand it.

_I can live with the pain,_ I tried to tell myself, _what I can't live with is being unable to think._

Sometimes though, I would make a twist or just move wrong and find myself on the verge of passing out, my forehead beaded with sweat.

I held on.

Everything felt rawer to me, but yes, I could stand it.

My head was clearer in a way though the pain, like the drugs, made it hard to think.

Still after a week I was throwing all the pills, pretending to take them but instead taking them back to my room and dropping them into the trash.

It was true that I was insanely strong.

One day, in a fit of anger, I punched the wall and was surprised when my fist tore through the wall as if it was thin cardboard.

I moved my bed so that its post partially hid the damage and was careful from then on out.

_It's not hopeless,_ I kept telling myself as the days went by.

The pain seemed to be diminishing at a steady rate but it was really hard to tell the difference.

But I still had everything I needed to be an excellent soldier.

_I'm still a soldier..._

* * *

2015, United States, UN mother base

"What do you mean he's gone?"

"Sorry soldier, but we're gonna have to file him MIA."

"With all due respect, sir," the female operative standing beside raised her voice, "we have to-"

The officer made a cutting motion, and the female operative stopped.

"There's no way he survived that," the officer continued, "the chopper blew up, in the middle of the pacific-"

"You're quite a quitter, aren't you?" a dense mandarin english echoed through the room.

"Mei Ling," the officer growled, "that was the second rescue team we sent, how many more MIA's do you want!?"

"We're giving it one last shot," a young operative with wild red hair stood up, "I'll volunteer."

"I'm in." the female operative followed.

"I..." the officer struggled to hold down his anger, "am ordering you all, to immediately abort-"

Another operative, slightly older, joined.

Mei Ling turned her stern face towards the officer, her expression determined.

"He's dead." the officer retaliated, "there's no use, Cyrus is dead."

He sliced his hand onto his palm for emphasis, "Dead. Dead. Dead."

"We can find him," the female operative clenched one of her fists, "we will..."

"Do not...under-estimate them," Mei Ling replied with a voice so cold that it would have frozen helium, "and above all, do not under-estimate...him."

* * *

_"Wake up..."_

_In my dream, the voice was of my father in Alaska, telling me it was time to get up and go to school._

_It was freezing outside, I knew._

_A biting sharp cold that punished all school children before they ever made it to class._

_An unforgiving, frigid wind that roared in from the North Pole and turned little hands into useless pink mittens, unable to write or type until furious rubbing and burning heaters warmed the blood again._

_I didn't want to go to school._

_I wanted to stay here, wrapped up in these warm soft blankets._

_"Wake up." insistent now, and hissed._

_My room blinked out, replaced by plain darkness._

_Not my father._

_Not John's pleasant singsong tone._

_Nope, this was thick American-accented English, and a little old and raspy._

_It was Snake._

_It was Snake?!_

_"What the f-"_

_"Ssssh!" the hissed demand seemed to drill into my ear, "I didn't wait this long just to hear you swear."_

_"How did you-"_

_"You really do have a short-term memory, don't you?"_

_I struggled to remember, but just couldn't grasp it._

_"What happened?" I tried to search for the familiar figure, but only a darkness enclosure replied me._

_"Well, somehow you were able to unleash this, wierd, blue force field thing-"_

_"So technically speaking I nuked Canterlot?"_

_"Canterlot?" Snake grunted as he tried to remember the name ,"oh, that weird city full of talking ponies?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Yes-"_

_I swallowed._

_"And no." Snake paused for a second, "You obilerated all those black charcoal canines-"_

_"Changelings."_

_"Changelings, but everything else seemed to be in one piece, and those ponies, wasn't even touched."_

_"You're talking about EMP."_

_"Something like that." Snake suddenly stopped._

_"What?"_

_"I don't know..."Snake's voice diminished._

_"Why are you here?" another soft, and some what familiar voice carried over to my ears, "It's not your time yet."_

_"What?" a sudden spasm of pain squeezed my chest and knocked my breath out of me._

* * *

2015, Equestria, Canterlot Palace

My first reaction upon waking was to bolt upright and gasp, but I had only risen a centimeter before pain shot through every inch of my body, and I fell back onto the bed with an agonized growl.

Wait.

A bed?

I was on a bed?

I was in the streets of Canterlot, with my body trying to rip itself apart, and now I was on a bed.

Something didn't add up.

I decided to test my vision.

It was still blurry, swarming with black red dots, but beginning to clear, with shapes growing more defined and clear.

Diagnostics ran through my solideye, which I've been trying to ignore.

I wanted to take a look at my surroundings, but I couldn't turn my head around to look around the room completely.

My thoughts went to Snake, and our encounter in the "space".

I wanted to call it a dream, but it seemed too tangible, too real.

The bitterness of the cold.

Dreams are fleeting; they fade almost immediately upon waking.

But what I had experienced was fresh in my head.

It was so real, and yet it couldn't possibly have been.

I wanted to call it a dream, but god damn that cold was real.

I heard the sound of hooves clopping against the floor and turned my head in its direction, wincing as my stiff, sore neck protested.

One of the tails of my bandana dropped over my right eye as my head turned, and so all I could see was a screen of dark teal, and the solideye's display of diagnostics.

The clopping sound came closer; I heard a strange chuckle, and felt something brushed against my face for an instant.

The bandana lifted from my eyes, but the shape in front of me was too blurry to discern distinctly.

All I could see was a mass of black and white.

I tried to talk, to ask who it was and why the hell I was here, but my tongue was thick and numb in my mouth.

The black and white shape stepped back, enough that I could see it clearly.

It was a zebra.

The strangest looking zebra I've ever seen.

Gilded jewelry ringed its neck and dangled from its ears.

The hell?

First a bunch of charcoal-colored canines, and now a zebra?

Was this supposed to be Africa?

I started chuckling.

A fresh wave of pain struck me as this new strain was put on my vocals.

But despite the pain I continued laughing.

"You're laughing as your body will allow," the zebra observed in a deep, yet distinctly feminine, voice, "Does that mean you've recovered now?"

It rhymed.

_She _rhymed.

A rhyming zebra.

This was too much.

Too much.

I ran the most recent 48 hours of my life through my head, grasping for logic.

I jumped of a out-of-control chopper, stuck in a world full of talking dimutitive horses, and attended a horse's screwed-up wedding.

But this was one step too far.

Too damn far.

Now this god-damn _rhyming_ zebra wearing some kind of ancient African _egungun, _the thought of her casting some random _juju_ on me almost made me quit.

Every un-naturally enhanced nerves in my body was alight; every synapses, artificial and biological, in my brain blazed.

I was still howling with laughter, couldn't stop.

The _rhyming _zebra tilted her head in slight confusion, "Your insane laughter is troubling me, is there something here that you find funny?"

I was still laughing before I choked on myself, and my laughing turned into dry, raspy coughs.

"Zecora? Zecora? Is he alright?" A small, shy voice, sounded so familiar.

_The zebra has a name._

I started to laugh again, but the pain stopped me before I could start again.

Black dots swarmed on my vision, pain wrecked me.

The zebra moved swiftly.

She nabbed a nearby clay bottle, yanked out the cork with its mouth, and shoved it into mine.

I coughed, choked, and sputtered on the bitter tasting piss-colored fluid.

Most of it burst out of my mouth like a fountain, but I guess enough was in where they were suppose to be.

Because a warm, comforting feeling grew in my chest and, gradually, began to spread outward.

My psychotic fit of laughter was gone.

"You done?" a rough, demanding voice that could only belong to Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah." I rasped.

The pain faded, replaced by a gentle numbness.

The pain was gone, but I still had no idea what happened.

"Your body unleashed a power in despair," Zecora spoke, as if reading my mind, "Such powerful power that nothing could compare."

The _rhyming_ was really getting on my nerves.

"Your mentor is a snake that was not created by nature," she continued, "Perhaps he taught you the skills of endure?"

_A Snake not created by nature?!_

I stared at this abnormal zebra, trying to understand every single syllable coming out of her.

She returned a mysterious smile.

"I suppose he have recovered?" a gentle, important-sounding feminine voice spreaded across the room.

I lifted my head, grunting with exertion as I turned.

The ponies bowed, as Princess Celestia greeted them as she passed through, "It's good to see you're fine, Cyrus."

"Your highness," I replied, "good to see you are, too."

I noted that Princess Celestia's movements were off, a little sluggish.

_She was hurt._

"What happened to the _real _Cadance? Twilight Sparkle?"

"Unknown," I told her, "I'm sorry, your highness."

"I'm sure they're fine," Princess Celestia replied, "I'm sure of it, Twilight never lets me down."

"No, she never does, your highness."

Feeling significantly better, I got up.

I felt every stiff joints cracked as I did so, "How long was I out?"

"3 hours."

"You've recovered faster than I expected," Zecora spoke calmly, despite her atonished face shown it all, "Does it bode with the mysterious energy I detected?"

I tried to ignore that zebra, knowing that I wouldn't understand a thing even if I did pay any attention, it was all gibberish to me.

"About that, 'spell' you casted," Princess Celestia said, "You've completely destroyed the whole changeling army with it, but everthing else..."

"Permission to speak freely, your highness?"

"Granted," the Princess swiftly answered, "I don't stand on ceremony, particularly given the circumstances. Speak your thoughts."

"Your highness, something isn't right about this 'invasion'. Chrysalis could have won, but instead she immediately retreated, claiming that meeting 'the devil of the black sun' was her priority."

The princess nodded.

"I also remembered, your highness, that you mentioned something 'elements' whatsoever, what is this 'element' thing?"

Princess Celestia smiled, "Follow me, you will find your answers."

* * *

2015, Equestria, Unknown location

"Twilight?"

Twilight Sparkle blinked, and the ghostly vision was gone.

She was in the dank, fetid prison, with her foalsitter.

It was like the set-up to a bad joke.

"Yeah?" she said, surprised at how raspy and hoarse her voice sounded, she cleared her throat and shook her head, "Yeah, sorry. What were you... what were you saying?"

Princess Cadance turned a look of concern upon Twilight, "I said that we need to find some way to get out of here."

Twilight nodded absently, muttering an affirmative.

Her gaze drifted over the human corpse, at the unnaturally bent leg and the concave wound in his head.

"Twilight...?" Princess Cadance trotted to her side, hesitated, then extended a hoof toward her friend. "You ok?"

She saw her foalsister's hoof out of the corner of her eye and jerked away, wrenching her gaze off of the body.

"I'm fine," she said quickly. Her heart hammered in her chest, her legs trembled, and she struggled to steady her breathing. "Just fine."

"Twi...?"

Twilight shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm fine, alright? I just - you're right, we need to get out of here."

"Are you sure you're alright, Twilight?"

"Yes," Twilight sniffed.

Tears pooled behind shut eyelids, stinging her eyes, and she slowly released a long, staggering breath.

_Shake this off, Twilight,_ she ordered herself, _There's a time and a place. This isn't it. There's got to be some way, there's always a way..._

* * *

We followed Princess Celestia into this room that somewhat resembled a church.

Glass paintings were all over the place, it was like each painting was telling an individual story of its own.

"The Elements of Harmony has saved Equestria from countless catastrophes," the princess said," It droved nightmare moon out of my sister Luna's body, and re-imprisoned Discord."

I had no idea who those 2 were, but they do sound evil.

"There are 6 elements," The princess continued," They are Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Loyalty, Kindness, and Magic."

_Adequate, _I silently remarked.

"You should know now that your friends are each a bearer themselves."

Despite what I've been through I flinched upon the word "friend".

Be-friending those _ponies_ was unthinkable, I would try my very best to avoid that, probably with the exception of...Fluttershy.

Princess Celestia led us to another painting, all I saw was a huge flock of what appeared to be blue butterflies, seemed so familiar, like I've seen a similar flock of them sometime before.

"But it appears that there's a hidden 7th element," the princess continued, "It was said that the 7th element would only reveal itself when necessary. In other words, when its counterpart reveals itself."

"Counterpart?"

"The elements of chaos," the princess replied, "the usual six was what created Discord, but the 7th, seemed to be, unstable."

"What do you mean?"

"Unlike the ordinary 6 elements, which seemed to be harmless to the bearer themselves. The 7th, both chaos and harmony, are extremely unstable, most certainly they will cause severe traumas to the bearers themselves. Or maybe..."

She trailed off.

But that was enough, FoxDie was all I thought about.

_Could that be the 7th "element" thing, FoxDie?_

_No._

_This does not make any sense._

_This "pony" world does not make any sense either._

"Well, I suppose I had the gist of what this 'element' thing is. Anyway, who's this, 'Devil of the black sun' guy?"

"Sullivan."

_Sullivan? _I heard father mentioning him before, but what about him?

"He's a human that arrived in Equestria 10 years ago," the princess continued, "he saw Equestria as an opportunity to create a haven, where warriors can fight without ideology."

_Outer Haven?! _

I thought that Liquid Ocelot's stupid idea of creating a world full of constant war was forever ceased after SOP got screwed up.

Looks like it wasn't.

"He appears to have an army of humans armed with strange weapons that can shoot thunder, sharp swords sparkling with lightning. He also have those 2 legged machines, the exact ones you've encountered in Ponyville, but I can't recall their names…"

"Gekko, your highness."

"Thank you, Cyrus. But Luna and I harnessed the elements of harmony, which ultimately defeated him."

Good, at least the ponies got something up their hooves.

"But then, the 7th element of chaos infected, which perhaps awakened the other 6 elements of chaos."

"And so does that Discord guy."

"Yes, I'm afraid so." the princess tensed, "but the 7th element seemed to be acting in a separate way, it doesn't seem to coordinate with the other 6."

According to the logic.

"And the 7th 'harmony thingy' is the same?"

"Precisely."

"Hey, your highness," Rainbow Dash broke in, "how come we've never heard about the 7th element of harmony, after all this time?"

"The 7th, is taboo, rather dangerous, if I have to say that..."

_Dangerous..._

"How's that?" Rainbow narrowed her eyes at the flock of blue butterfly on the painting, "I couldn't see anything dangerous about those 'butterflies'..."

"You're right about one thing, those blue butterflies do have a relationship with the 7th element. In fact, hypothetically speaking, I think that the 7th element had a special link with the element of kindness."

Fluttershy visibly flinched.

"For your other part of your question, the 7th element is not like the rest 6. It's hard to explain everything, so I will make it simple."

The princess inhaled a deep breath, "Technically, the 7th element of harmony is so unstable that it could threaten all of Equestria, and all living beings in it."

_FoxDie..._

Silence surrounded us, none of us talked.

Until a mono-tone melody ringed in my head.

A familiar ring tone.

_Codec!_

_Did my call for support finally got through?!_

I answered the call, my hand trembling from excitement.

"This is Cyrus, I'm currently stuck in an unknown location, could use a bird or two for backup!"

The ponies abruptly turned their head around, staring at me in confusion.

They couldn't hear the codec rang; Since the codec was implanted in my ear-bone area as normal codecs should, I was the only one who could hear it.

I couldn't blame them for their reaction.

_"Cyrus?! Is that you?"_ a familiar feminine voice broke out from the other side.

No.

It was not Felicia.

Not Mei Ling.

Not Meryl.

The sound of a purple unicorn.  
_Shit..._ I chuckled to myself, _so long for that hope for escape..._

"Um, excuse me Cyrus." the princess's voice was full of concern, "are you alright?"

Well, hope for escape is gone,but don't want to become a lunatic next.

I redirected the codec transmission to my solid eye, and turned it on to broadcast.

_"Yes! Thank Celestia it worked!"_ Twilight screamed through my solid eye, literally quaking all my earbones.

The new solid eye, unlike the one Snake wore, was much more suitable, completed with a Visual enhancement system and solar charger.

And of course, the ability to broadcast, so that I won't be caught by my teammates talking to myself.

The solid eye itself was of course tougher than its older version, so I wouldn't have to worry about it blowing up in my face while crawling through a giant microwave oven.

That is, if I actually get the oppurtunity.

Well, though my chance for getting out of this "pony" world is dead, at least I was no longer acting like I was talking to myself.

And from the ponies' expressions they were relieved to hear their friend's voice.

"Twi'? Is that you?" Applejack edged closer.

Well, solid eye wasn't designed for speaker.

But I got plenty of questions for her, like...

Where the hell had she've been?

What the hell had she've been doing?

How the hell did she knew my codec number?

_"Been casting a scanning spell,"_ she remarked, half-showing off_, "managed to get the signal. Apology if I surprised you, but we're in trouble."_

"We?"

_"Cadance is here with me. Don't worry, she's the **real** Cadance."_

"Can you give me your location?"

_"I don't know, but not in a comfortable place. What I can tell you is we're in big trouble, we're captured."_

Rarity gulped.

"Who?"

_"This human that referred himself as 'the devil of the black sun'."_

"Him..."

_"You know him?"_

"Nevermind." I shook myself to clear the blurry image forming in my mind.

"Well, what the hay are we waiting for?" Rainbow Dash lifted a foot off the ground, "let's go rescue her!"

"Hang on," I said, "we can't just go outside and blindly search for her, that's not gonna work."

"What do you suggest then, _sir?"_ she remarked sarcastically.

_"I don't know who you're talking to now, probably Rainbow Dash if I had to guess,"_ Twilight said, _"but you're right. Wait, hang on-"_

I heard faint footsteps in the background.

_"I have to stay quiet, is coming, stay online."_

Then Twilight's voice was gone, but replaced by a low, hoarse human voice, several of them, one sounded a little less human.

_"So, you sure she's one of the bearers?"_ one voice asked.

_"Yes, indeed. She's the bearer of the element of magic."_ another voice replied.

_"And I suppose,"_ a hoarse, yet feminine voice said, _"that we can't kill her?"_

_"Think with your head Chrysalis."_

_Chrysalis is there..._

_"Well, I suppose you've scanned their city for the elements?"_ the first voice said.

_"Yes,"_ Chrysalis replied, _"Didn't even find a dust of it."_

_"So they're bluffing after all, the elements aren't there."_

_"Of course they're not," _the first voice, which seemed to be the leader, said,_ "they can use the elements from an infinite range for who knows what reason, they don't need the artifacts to be physically there."_

_"Damn, that's gonna suck."_

_"Well, that's where she comes in."_

I heard a small breathe drawn into Twilight, she's probably nervous about something.

And I could imagining Sullivan aiming his forefinger at the purple unicorn.

_"I see, you're gonna use her to find the elements?"_

_"Yes, indeed."_

_"Tomorrow?"_

_"Yes, as according to our plan. But let's not talk about it here, after all, we can't trust the prisoner, despite we need her."_

_"One quick question, sir." _another feminine voice broke in, not Chrysalis.

_"Yes?"_

_"About that, alicorn, what use do we have for her?"_

_"Well, another way for us to obtain the elements, in case anything goes funny."_

_"I understand, sir."_

_"Anyway, let's talk about this somewhere else."_

Then was the foot steps, and they slowly faded.

Took me a while to realize that Twilight wasn't breathing.

"Twilight?"

She exhaled deeply, and took several deep breaths.

_She's been holding her breath._

And I realized I was holding my own too.

_"They're going to use Cadance and I to find the elements, this is not good."_

"Oh goodness gracious," Rarity gasped, "What are we going to do?"

"Or perhaps," I ignored her and carried on, "It might not be a bad thing after all."

"HUH?!" Every pony simultaneously turned to me, shock all over their face.

"That might be an opportunity to get you, and Cadance, out of there." my voice barely covered the shit-eating grin I no doubt had plastered over my face.

_"That's a great plan! Looks like I'm at least not the only intellect around here."_

"That's what I've been trying to say for the past few minutes!" Rainbow Dash stomped her hooves in frustration, "Let's just roll out and get them out of there!"

"Rainbow raging again," I muttered," I suppose she's a little too eager for this operation."

_"Well, tell her that she's not going to find anything now. Mr. Devil said 'tomorrow', remember?"_

Rainbow Dash sighed and stopped.

"You already did." I stated.

_"Wait, this is on broadcast?!"_ Twilight's voice was shaking now, _"So everyone else, maybe even the princess?! Oh-"_

"It's ok." Princess Celestia said.

"Princess said it's ok." I repeated, "no need to go nuts just yet."

_"O..ok. Tell my friends I'm sorry about that 'intellect' thing."_

"You did."

_"I kept forgetting about that 'broadcast'! Fine, everypony head back and prepare for tomorrow. Make sure all of you get plenty of rest, we will get busy!"_

"Understood."

_"Alright, I have to go. Guard caught me 'talking to myself' and think probably something interesting is going on here, bye."_

"Alright, Cyrus out."

The codec snapped off, and a slight ringing sensation briefly filled my left ear as the current was redirected back to my earbone.

Three heartbeats later the door sprang open, revealing the startled Prince Shining Armor.

"The wedding, is it over?" He asked, his eyes made him looked like he haven't slept for days.

"Uh..." the 5 ponies stammered simultaneously.

The Prince trotted towards us, or rather, hunching towards us, swaying side to side.

He looked like someone who have been drinking for the whole day, minus the nano-machine metabolism function.

"Captain Shining Armor," Princess Celestia said, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just-" He suddenly tensed straight.

"Sir?" we all took several steps towards the unicorn, but keeping a distance.

He suddenly rammed forward, and stopped.

I saw his green walled-eye squiggling, he's not in good shape.

"Sir?!"

Only gibberish came out of the unicorn's mouth, diagnostic ran through my solid eye as it tried in vain to translate.

I tapped a switch and the distractive equipment snapped and withdrew back behind my ear.

Everything felt fishy after using the solid eye for so long, but for one thing I was sure.

He's not alright.

"What now?" Rainbow Dash grunted.

I took a step forward.

"What are you doing?!" Rarity gasped, her face white (it was white anyway).

"Something my mentor would approve of." I muttered.

A small, brutal, simplistic solution popped up in my mind.

I couldn't think of any other choice, so I did what the ponies least expected.

I lunged forward, drew back my hand, palm facing outward, and sent a open-palm slap across the prince's face.

The sound was unpredictably loud, but it was indeed satisfying.

"Cyrus?! What are you-"

Rarity stopped half-way, she couldn't continue, it was too interesting for her to continue.

A sparkle of green zapped out of Shining Armor and he collapsed.

A second later he sprang up, seemed to collapse again, and steadied.

"What...Why am I here? I remembered that I was in the wedding..."

"_Sir_, do you feel better now?" a slight discomfort tingled me, but he's the captain, couldn't give a damn about it.

"Not if some pony tell me what the hay just happened," he countered and gave rapid-fire questions.

"What happened during the Wedding?!

"Where's Twil'y?!

"Where's Cadance?!

"Why am I here?!

"Did some pony just slapped me across my face?!"

"This would require plenty of explanations, Captain Shining Armor but, I'll have to tell it to you straight, given the circumstances," Princess Celestia said, "The 'Cadance' on the wedding was a fake, she's actually Queen Chrysalis. The actual Princess Cadance is missing, with Twilight Sparkle, most likely captured."

Shining Armor stood still for a few seconds and then started trotting anxiously around the room.

"No, not Twil'y and Cadance..."

He then turned to me, his face a begging expression, un-usual for a "royal guy" like him.  
"I know it would be a little too early to ask you for help but, I wonder if you're are good at rescuing hostages?"

I shrugged, "I do it once in a while."  
"So may I..."

"Yes, sir."

The prince tensed, a bit surprised by how fast the things went through.

"I will retrieve the hostages, particularly given the fact that they are your, 'important relatives'."

"Thank you, Cyrus."

I nodded, and turned to Princess Celestia, "request for mission, your highness?"

"Pardon?"

"To retrieve, I mean, rescue Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance?"

"Granted." the princess smiled, "thank you."

Shining Armor was anxious, but better off if he'd go grab some sack time before the anxiety get into him.

"Captain Shining Armor, I suggest you go get some rest, for you need to go continue to fulfill your, duties."

"Yes, thank you, your highness."

I watched Shining Armor left, already trying to form some sort of plan.

_How do I rescue 2 ponies from a bunch of crazy terrorists?_

_Charge into their base and ask them to throw down their weapons?_

_Blindly search around like a headless fly?_

No, the best plan, is to adapt.

Adapt to your surroundings, Snake taught me that, and bizarre situations as well.

"Cyrus," Princess Celestia called, "About the 7th element..."

"Yes, your highness?"

"That spell you casted, was something that I've never seen before. That spell was something that me, my sister, and even Star Swirl the Bearded, didn't accomplish."

That EMP thing was quite dramatic but I had no idea...and-

_Star Swirl the bearded?!_

I shrugged, "so?"

"Do you think that there is any possibility? That maybe..."

No.

"Nevermind," the princess trailed off, "That was ludicrous, forgive me."

She then stared right into me, I flinched, even for a tough-ass like me that was unbearable.

"If, hypothetically, you were manage to save Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance, would you stay and continue fighting?"

I couldn't find the answer.

A part of me just prayed to god and hoped that I could get the hell out of this 6-year old pony world.

While another part seemed to be telling me to stay and fight, for those, ponies.

"I'm giving you a choice Cyrus," she sighed, "I could not force you into fighting for us, that would be enslavement. I will let youd decide whether you want or not..."

"And if I said no?"

"I'll do whatever I can to help you return to your world."

Another choice.

The ponies stared at me, quiet, apparantly hoping for an answer.

I clenched my hand into a fist.

No, I could no longer let another "haven" dissipate from my eyes.

I'm not going to let the last land of peace I've known turn into another clusterfuck.

I had enough with SOP and the war economy.

I've made my choice.

"I want to do it."

"Pardon?"

"I'm in."

Before the expressions were made I sliced in another question.

"One question, though, your highness."

"Yes, Cyrus?" she said.

"Why did you trust me?" I looked into my palm, "I'm a human. I suppose you've seen them rampaging around enough in those 10 years. Why did you give me the choice?"

"Simple," the princess barely concealed a faint, pleasant smile, "because you don't look like an enemy."

* * *

A/N: Yay, that's another chapter! Hope everyone is enjoying. Please R&R.


	5. File B-04: Blue and Pink

A/N: Time for a little avenging on a certain ocelot, uh...I mean, griffin.

Enjoy and please R&R!

* * *

_"Don't...make a filly promise, that you can't keep..."_

* * *

2015, Equestria, Ponyville

_What did she meant by, "I don't look like an enemy?"_

The thought lingered around in my head.

_Could there actually be someone else, human, on our side?_

I banished the thought, it was late afternoon, and I was starving.

I kicked myself for not bringing my rations, which should still be stashed up nicely in Fluttershy's cabin.

"Everythin' ol'right? sugar cube?" Applejack asked.

I never heard of the phrase "sugar cube", probably some random pony's name.

"Uhhh...you ol'right? sugar cube?"

I turned to my head around, Applejack was practically on top of me.

No, she was looking over me, apparantly worried.

"I'm fine. I'm not a 'sugarcube'." I grumbled.

"Of course you're, yer' our HFF."

"Huh?" the ponies simultaneously turned their head around, confusion plastered all over their face.

"Human friends forever?" Applejack insisted.

"Oooooh..."

I face-palmed myself, unable to believe that I was officially friends with a bunch of, ponies.

Well, if they insist...

"We're here," Rainbow Dash announced, "finally."

The train slowed, and hissed into a stop.

I walked out, eager to catch some fresh air.

Coming out of the suffocating train and into the daylight of the afternoon sun was an adjustment.

Not so much because my eyes needed to adapt to the light after so much time using the solid eye, but because of how Ponyville looked in direct sunlight.

The town was beautiful under the afternoon sunlight.

Brilliant, really.

Everywhere I looked was saturated with color.

Everything else from my world seemed drab and washed out.

I kept looking down at my boots in the dirt, and noticing how badly they clashed with the environment.

My mentors, one was a snake which was not created by nature, another was a lightning born on a rainy day.

Camouflage, I decided, would not be a perfect option.

In hindsight, though, I wondered how well the Octocamo would have worked in Equestria; I've seen a demo but I couldn't let my guards down.

Octocamo is my bread'n'butter in stealth missions.

Those freakish terrorists bastards want what ever the thing Twilight and her friends had, and under any perspective nothing good is gonna happen if they get their hands on them.

"Yayhayhay! You're all back!" a young kid's voice pulled me back into reality, or rather, the "reality".

I looked up, and realized that it was not a kid.

It was a miniature purple dragon.

The baby dragon didn't seem to recognize my existence, which I very much doubt.

"So, how was the wedding? Real cool right? Ha, I know it! Just wait until my bachelor party, and I'll show you all-"

He stopped, finally noticing that the ponies' expressions were a bit off his.

"What is it? Something wrong-" he stiffed, "where's Twilight?"

And he finally acknowledged my existence.

"And what is that, hallucination?"

"No," I grumbled, "I'm not a hallucination."

"No...you-you-you must be one of the horrible creatures I've read about from Twilight's books! Do not come any closer, I-I-I can breathe fire you know, and-"

"Spike!" Rainbow Dash cut Spike off, "he's with us! Haven't Twilight told you about him?!"

"She has, about some pony who saved Ponyville from 3-"

"I'm not a pony." I tried to control my anger.

"You most certainly isn't!"

"Quiet y'all!" Applejack scowled, "not the time for this! He's a friend tuh' the hoof!"

"What?"

"Ah'm the element of honesty," Applejack calmed down, "Ah' never lie."

Spike controlled his shivering and stared at me with big green fearful dragon eyes.

I shrugged.

"S-sorry about the warm reception," he struggled to swallow his fear, "I'm Spike, Twilight's assistant."

He trembled a claw out, which I gladly shooked.

"Cyrus."

A slight guilt tingled as I shook his hand, something from the past, coming back to me.

_I refused to shook **his** hand..._

Spike was calming down, that's a good thing, "But, where's Twilight?"

"She, um..."

"Was captur'd." Applejack finished before I could cook out an out-right lie.

"What?!"

"Relax, she's fine, with Cad'nce."

"Princess was captured too?! What happened on the wedding?"

"The 'Cadance' on the weddin' was a fake, she was a changelin'."

"A what?"

"Changelin'."

"Pardon?"

I couldn't bring myself into a small snigger, Applejack was obviously having trouble butchering through the word with her southern accent.

"Fergit' it, "she said, slightly irritated, "She had this whole army cooked up an' if it weren't for Cyrus, Canterlot would've been takin'."

"Oh no," the dragon froze, "this isn't good. We have to go rescue Twilight and Princess Cadance, now!"

Rainbow Dash grunted, "as much as I support you, Twilight told us to go get her tomorrow, we won't find a speck of her today."

"How did she tell you?" Spike countered, with disbelief.

Rainbow Dash cocked his head at me, "He and his little thing there."

"What little thing?"

"a little present I got from uncle Hal." I answered, concealing a grin.

With a milli-second, the solid eye clinked on in front of my left eye, chirped twice, and sprang into life, three small light signals shined bright red for emphasis of being perfectly functional.

Light blue display hummed over my vision, and before it fully resolved I snapped the solid eye back behind my left ear.

I preferred seeing things with my own eyes, it felt more natural.

And I preferred to watch Spike's gaping face with my own eyes.

* * *

2015, United-States, UN Mother Base

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

The officer smacked a series of MIA files onto the desk.

"We just wasted a whole bunch of tough-ass operatives on this worthless, 'rescue mission' of yours, anything you have to say?"

"That area is rather, 'abnormal', perhaps-"

"Enough! I'm not going to waste any more soldiers. I officially announce that Cyrus is Missing in Action, end of story."

* * *

2015, Equestria, Fluttershy's Cabin

I enjoyed watching Fluttershy feeding her animals.

It's not like that I liked those critters one bit, it was the soothing environment, full of kindness and calmness.

I never had those leisures back there, it was a miracle if I was allowed to sleep 5 hours straight.

"Now, Angel. Don't rush, we have plenty of carrots left."

It was that damn rabbit again, if he's not Fluttershy's pet, I ought to-

"Wow, Angel, I've never seen you eaten so fast before, you need more?"

Wait, the carrot, it's gone?

According to the size ratio between the rabbit and the 6 inch carrot...

_God if all soldiers could eat at that effeciency..._

"Oh no," Fluttershy rummaged through the cupboards, "we're out of carrots."

Angel sighed and turned to me, staring another threat glare at me.

_Damn rabbit..._

I took full control over my right hand before it could draw out a blade, one slight touch of the high-frequency resonating metal...

I was confident that I had enough self-control and dexterity to not chop the rabbit's head off, or if I did, without Fluttershy noticing.

No.

I banished the thought of kill from my head, _not now at least._

"Cyrus, I have to go buy some carrots for Angel, if that's ok with you..."

"Sure."

I was indeed a little concerned about her "cowardness".

She never seemed to make a single decision on her own, she always needed to ask someone, or some pony, whether it was ok with them.

Angel, glaring another taunting stare of triumph at me, leapt on to Fluttershy, and they both left.

_Damn rabbit..._

I was so much into hating that rabbit that I almost forgot that I was starving.

With eager I took out the ration that I so much missed and, with a quick flick of my combat knife, canned it open.

I read the instructions, and barely understanded a word, it was scribbled with French.

I shrugged and gingerly lifted the can.

I took a quick snuff, glad that it was not expired, and downed its contents.

_Délicieux_.

* * *

2015, Equestria, Ponyville

Fluttershy trotted along the outskirts of Ponyville, watching the town under the afternoon sun.

Her pet bunny, Angel, was standing beside her; looking up at his smiling pony friend.

"Oh, Angel...How am I suppose to say it to him?" The pale yellow pegasus shook her head, her pink mane drifting along with the movement.

She looked up at the sky.

The sun was about half-way down; indicating it was about noon.

The snow-white bunny shrugged.

Fluttershy stood back up; smiling at her pet bunny, "Alright, Angel, we'll get going and get you a nice carrot."

Angel gave a happy jump and leaped onto Fluttershy's back.

"Now, Angel, I have to get my bits first." With the bunny, she was feeling a bit more optimistic.

"You want a carrot?" The shop-mare asked.

"Yes, please. My little Angel is very hungry and..." She took out two bits; the price for one carrot. "This is enough, right?"

"...Yes, dearie." The red-maned mare replied, picking up a large carrot and the bits, "Here you go. Have a good day!"

Fluttershy nodded softly, picking up the carrot with her teeth and trotting off.

The pink-maned pegasus let Angel hop down from her back.

She cleaned the carrot from any grime it may have had on it.

When she was done cleaning the vegetable, it was a clean, bright orange.

She handed it to a hungry Angel.

The white rabbit gave the food a quick glare and a sniff before he grinned and chowed down.

Fluttershy smiled.

She liked to see her animal friend happy.

It made her happy.

"Alright, Angel, let's go home."

Angel looked up from his food; his face covered in carrot juice and little kibbles of the vegetable, and nodded.

With that, Fluttershy made her way down the small walkway.

However, on her way, she saw a small shape on the roadside; beside a tree.

Growing concerned, she trotted over to the shape, and realized that it was a small bird.

It's dull grey feathers were dusty with dirt.

It's right wing was bent at an awkward angle.

It's eyes were wide in pain and fear.

"Oh... oh my..."

Fluttershy kneeled beside the bird, giving the wing a close examination.

"It's broken... Oh, you poor thing!"

She picked the creature up and spread her wings, flying softly in the air.

She held the bird and looked around to see if any other birds were looking for its friend, worrying about it...

Silence; and nothing could be seen.

"Don't worry, I will take good care of you."

As Fluttershy was deep in thought, she didn't notice the group of four young colts slowly surrounding her.

"Hey, look who it is. It's FlutterCRY." One of the colts jeered.

"Oh, no, please, s-stay away." Fluttershy said quietly, tears already welling up in her eyes, remembering the past cruelties.

"Wow, it didn't take ten words this time." mocked another colt.

The third colt kicked away the injured bird Fluttershy was holding, the bird gave a faint chirp of pain and was struck mute.

They closed in with taunting chants.

"Can Fluttercry fly yet?"

"Why don't you just fly away? Huh, Fluttercry?"

"Still wearing your _tail extensions_, eh? _Failureshy_?!"

The insults stabbed her like knives, her thoughts were confused, blinded by sadness and tears.

"Why don't you go whine at your mom, eh?" one of them jeered, "Oh yeah, you don't have one! Your mom think you are a disgrace to your family and left you!"

A small crowd of nearby ponies was already starting to form, and having that stated right in front of the crowd made her felt extremely mortified.

She wished that she could just reduce herself to nothing-ness, it was all too much.

"I suppose I'm not _missing _any of the fun stuff?" Another voice, feminine, but just as taunting, caused the colts to turned their attention to some other pony.

Or rather, some-

"Huh, I know you..." another colt, apparantly the leader, said, "Used to be one of us, what are you doing here?"

"You know him?" one of the colts asked.

"Indeed."

"Ha!" the griffin jeered, "That's Gilda to you... and don't you forget it."

"Stay away," the leading colt hissed, "she's ours, now get out of here."

"Oh I'm afraid not," Gilda smiled a taunting grin, and crouched into a stance, "a griffin never let its prey escape."

"What are you-"  
The griffin dashed forward with withering speed and with a swung, sent a claw straight across the leading colt's face.

The impact broke bones and the colt went down without a sound.

The rest of the ponies, surprised and idiotic in the face of such brute force, fled.

"I can't say it feels good to punch a former comrade, even if it is for my own sake." Gilda muttered to the unconscious pony.

She finished her business and turned back to where the yellow pegasus should be curled up and cowering in fear.

"Huh?"

Or rather, was curled up and covering in fear.

A griffin _never _let its prey escape.

"Damn!" the griffin could no longer hold her empty promise.

"Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!"

That was truly a cat-like behavior.

"Bitch!"

* * *

I wandered around in the streets of Ponyville.

This was my second day in this "Ponyville", and the third in this "Equestria".

I rewinded through the most recent 72 hours.

I jumped out of an out-of-control Raven-chopper.

I got miraculously transported into this "Equestria" place by some random time paradox or something.

I single handedly saved a pegasus's ass.

I befriended a bunch of dimutitive horses.

I attended a "royal" horse wedding, which was no doubt fucked up by those, interesting black mutants.

I encountered a zebra wearing some kind of ancient African _egungun_ while I felt like I was on fire.

And I accepted a mission to rescue two ponies.

None of them made sense.

My path once again crossed with the giant ginger-bread house.

No longer surprised, I went on.

Until a squeaky girlish voice caught my attention and I took a quick glance through the window.

It was Pinkie Pie, apparantly talking to another pony that was at least four times older than her.

Her appearance for an unknown reason reminded me of cupcakes.

_Cupcakes._

I grinned at myself and shook my head.

* * *

Tears streamed across her face, smearing her vision as she used her long thin legs to propel herself into the air.

She feebly flapped her wings, trying as hard as she might, but her tiny wings couldn't keep her up long enough to land and she came crashing down to Earth, still sobbing.

But it didn't matter now, she was out of that horrible place, and she hoped she would never go back again.

She tried to stand, only to fall on her lame leg.

She tried again, putting weight on it gingerly, but it sent spikes of unreasonable pain shooting through her.

She half hobbled half ran.

She didn't know where yet, anywhere away from that place was fine.

She noticed just how strange she must look, running through the streets of Ponyville.

A tiny yellow pegasus filly with a pink mane matted to her face with tears.

Half-consciously, she noticed that for once, the streets were empty.

But it was fine.

She didn't need other ponies calling her names like Failureshy and Fluttercry.

Thinking of the horrible insults jabbed at her, she broke into new sobs, each one racking her body.

Eventually, she could run no more for the tears, and broke down crying on the side of the street.

* * *

Pinkie Pie hysterically bounced around a mid-aged mare, describing her new friend as the mare tried in vain to understand.

"And he was such a great guy that I could just THROW HIM A PARTY NOW-"

"Alright, Pinkie Pie, I think I got it, now you should go do some preparations for tomorrow, and as well as some rest."

"Whatever you say, Mrs. Cup Cake!"

* * *

"So, this is the legendary _'Cyrus'_ I've heard about? We meet at last."

I spun around, and there she was, some random griffin.

_A griffin?!_

"Who the hell are you?"

"It's been a long time since I've seen any human being," the griffin continued, "now we'll see if this human could live up with his legend."

I was unarmed, my arsenal nicely stacked up back in the cabin.

But I was confident that I could take on a self-centered _talking _griffin.

* * *

_"Only a fool trust his life to a weapon..."_

* * *

"It doesn't feel right to do this to a stranger... but I'll get over it. And besides-"

She turned her head, "I got a pegasus to hunt."

That didn't feel right.

I crouched into a combat stance, the classical CQC fighting stance.

"What is this," Gilda slowly trotted towards me, studying my stance, "this... lame stance of yours?"

She laughed.

"It appears that you are no doubt _not _the legendary 'Cyrus' I was looking for."

She walked up, apparantly threatening me, "If you are not the legendary 'Cyrus', then die!"

She crouched down, and prepared to pounce.

* * *

"Are you alright, Pinkie Pie?"

"Mrs. Cup Cake, it's my tail! Twitchy tail!"

"What-"

* * *

Gilda went down without a sound as a black shadowy figure crashed right onto her head.

Half a second later I recognized the figure as a cracked-up flower pot.

I glanced up at the sky, nothing met me but the glimmering orange light of the sun.

Which sparked up another question.

_Then where the hell did that came from?_

My mind was cut off when the griffin's groan of pain caught my attention.

"Damn," Gilda croaked, clutching her bruised head, "This isn't over!"

She then wobbled around, took to the air, and was gone.

I watched her fled, amused, until something rapidly hammered me quickly, yet lightly, on my legs; I sprung around, alert.

Nothing.

Something touched me again.

I learned and looked down.

A rabbit.

_The damn rabbit._

But he didn't seemed to want to piss me off.

In fact his look seemed to be anxious.

"What?"

He made a pointing motion toward the tree.

I convinced my self to follow the rabbit there, and on the ground I saw a bird.

"So, just a bird."

The rabbit rolled his eyes.

At first instinct I turned around and left, not until a flurry of painless beating forced my eyes down again.

"What?!"

Angel motioned toward the bird.

Apart from a broken wing, nothing else seemed to be an issue for the bird.

"So?"

Angel patted his tiny chest, attempted to swung the bird over his shoulders, grunted in exertion, and failed, panting in exhaustion.

He then gestured me to help.

No way.

"Don't expect me to do anything about-"

I stopped.

Something wasn't right.

I got this, funny, yet uncomfortable feeling, and before I knew it-

"Fine."

I took out my syringe, and stuck it into the bird's injured wing.

The bird gave a small chirp of discomfort but that was it.

I then injected the bird with a small dose of local anesthetic to help it with the pain.

I was about to pick up the bird when the rabbit stopped me from doing so.

He once again approached the bird, and, to my surprise, successfully slumped the bird over his tiny body this time.

It looked amusing, and I wanted to have a good laugh, but I couldn't, given the circumstance.

"You sure you got this?" I asked, in slight disbelief.

The rabbit nodded.

I started my way back to the cabin, until I heard a cough for attention.

It was Angel again.

He pointed toward the opposite direction, his face a serious expression.

I've never seen him so serious before.

Something was going on.

Angel impatiently stomped the ground, apparently telling me to shove it, shut up, and get going.

I sighed.

"Sir, yes sir." I replied sarcastically.

The rabbit nodded in satisfaction, clearly did not recognized my sarcasm.

* * *

_It's going to be ok, it's all gonna be ok. _

_Breathe in._

_Breathe out._

_Nothing to worry about, it's gonna be fine. _

_Everything will be just fine. Shh, shh, shh; it's all going to be ok. _

_It's ok._

_It's not ok..._

* * *

The rabbit stopped.

But I stopped before him.

"_Sad…So sad…"_

It was that voice again.

"_A host of sorrow..."_

I frantically searched around for the source, nothing found me.

"Did you hear that?"

The bunny shrugged.

Then he tried to keep me going.

But that wasn't necessary.

I heard the sobbing in the distance.

The voice itself was more than enough.

I felt like my innards were diced up into even little cubes and stitched back together all wrong.

Angel tensed.

It was Fluttershy.

She knelt on the ground on all fours, her body trembled, and her head and shoulders were slumped forward.

Heavy, heaving sobs wrecked her body.

Angel gestured me to move forward, but he did what it seemed like to be heading back.

"Where're you going?" I said.

The rabbit cocked his head toward the bird, and stared hard into me.

We stayed like that for a full second.

"Ugh, alright damn you," I gave in, "I'll handle her."

Angel nodded in satisfaction and slowly started his way back.

I sighed, and turned to the situation at hand.

I slowly approached the pegasus, as quiet as I could but just enough for her to recognize my existence.

She did, she flinched.

"Fluttershy."

I stopped beside her.

She didn't turn back, "I'm fine."

But it's pretty damn obvious she's not.

"What's going on?"

"Cyrus, really..." she glanced at me, her tears still flowing, "I'm fine."

"Fluttershy."

Fluttershy was struck mute.

"You can't just box yourself in like that forever, put your self together." I said, attempting to be as patient as I could muster, "so answer me, what happened?"

She said something, but it was all mumbled gibberish, even with the enhancements I was not able to make out a word.

_What should I do? _I asked myself, _I'm not a typical lady's man._

Especially her, she got some kind of unknown enclosure surrounding her, some invisible barricade that I couldn't break.

But whatever it takes to shut the pegasus up, any more of her crying and I would go shoot myself.

I sighed and squat down beside the pegasus.

"Fluttershy, is there anything I could do?" I tried again, a bit nicer this time.

She mumbled more gibberish.

"Or should I just, sit down here with you for a while?" I chewed on every word, I did not like this one bit.

Fluttershy nodded, choking on a sob.

I sat down, every nerve inside me tensed.

I just sat there with a yellow pegasus and waited.

Waited.

A faint glistening sound filled my ears.

I looked up, and saw a blue dot.

The dot grew slightly bigger, and shapes started taking form as the glistening sound magnified.

The figure then resolved itself into a blue butterfly, I believe I've seen it somewhere.

The glistening sound was now uncomfortably loud, I didn't cover my ears.

It was far too fascinating to do so.

I was so interested that it was not until a second later I felt something shaking in my lap.

I looked down.

Fluttershy buried herself deep into me and cried like I've never seen her cried before.

I thought I wanted to cry a little as well, but then came a strong blue light, a moment of vertigo.

Then nothing.

* * *

_Everything was so white, so bright that it was really stunning my eyes._

_I wanted to close them but I can't, as if I had no eye lids at all._

_Where am I?_

_What am I doing here?_

_"I've been waiting for you, child," a wise, gentle female voice said, not Princess Celestia, "for a long time, waiting for your birth, your growth..."_

_"Nothing" was talking to me._

_"Where are you?! Come out!" I called to the voice._

_"And the finality of today..." she ignored me and was gone._

_Finality of today..._

_I was still chewing on those words when colors began to fill the whiteness, everything was becoming uncomfortably bright._

_Then, a soothing theme slowly began to play._

_On my first impression I thought it might be the hum that Snake was told me about._

_But as the tone went on I banished that thought, it was not hum, and so far no lunatic in gas mask in sight._

_Someone is singing, I could tell that, but I could barely make out the words, not to mention understanding them._

_Whatever song it was, it was indeed soothing, I slowly relaxed, and the light was not that uncomfortable anymore._

_Pictures, no, background began to take form, first was the clear blue sky, then a grass field._

_I thought it was the place where I last seen Captain, but I was wrong._

_This place was not filled with mangled carnage of the corpes of PMC troopers of Octopus Armaments, and the tree were Captain should be laying was not there._

_Furthermore, this grass field gave me a different feeling, not the blood thirsting combat high, but a soothing sensation, something I haven't felt in years._

_Another humming made its way into my ears, not background._

_The lullaby._

_Mother?!_

_I jerked left, and saw a yellow pegasus._

_Not mother, but why was she humming the lullaby?_

_"I was once a mother," the voice came again, apparantly introducing herself, "but I gave up my body and my child for my country. There is nothing left inside me now. Nothing at all. No hatred, not even regret. And yet sometimes at night I can still feel the pain creeping up inside me. Slithering through my body, like a snake."_

_Like a snake..._

_I shook my head to clear the voice out, and returned to the pegasus._

_The mare, with rich, saturated red mane, was curled up beside a filly, perhaps her child._

_The filly had the same butter-colored fur, and..._

_That familiar pink mane._

_Could she be Fluttershy?_

_Filly Fluttershy?_

_The mare continued humming the lullaby._

_I treaded through the grass field, to my surprise did not made a sound, and was soon standing infront of the pair._

_Fluttershy and her mother haven't noticed me yet, which I found interesting._

_I looked down, clearly I had no stealth camo on, my octocamo was off, meaning my camo index, if I had my solid eye on, should be in the negatives._

_Did they even acknowledged my existence?_

_Or was this some kind of dream?_

_It was absurd, but it felt very real._

_I could feel the wind brushing against my face, and hear the grass shuffling along with the wind._

_Fluttershy was all snuggled up beside her mother, which sparked a memory in me._

_When was the last time I hugged my mother, or the last time I've even met her?_

_I couldn't bring myself into a slight envy._

_The soothing theme suddenly cut off, and before I know it a searing pain caught me on the back._

_The grass field reduced itself into a small green dot and was gone._

_The searing pain was still there, not unbearable, but agonizing._

_Slowly, the pain turned into a burning sensation._

_I felt like I was stuck crawling in a giant microwave oven, my suit was just a few Celsius away from melting, I could feel it slowly scorching my body._

_A moo, that could only possibly come from an IRVING, tensed my nerves._

_Background once again took form, but no longer the peaceful grass land._

_Then there was only a burning town._

_Wait, some shapes took form._

_They resolved into ponies._

_Screaming, running, bloodied __ponies._

_Wait._

_What's going on?_

_I can't move, my feet were rooted on the ground by some unknown force._

_"Life's end..." the voice once again moved in and remarked, "Isn't it beautiful? It's almost tragic. When life ends, it gives off a final lingering aroma. Light is but a farewell gift from the darkness to those on their way to die."_

_"Stop!" I hissed, and swung a blow toward my back, at my imaginary voice, and it hid itself up again._

_An IRVING landed right in front of my face, mooed twice, and was gone in another powerful leap._

_Soldiers brushed past me, screaming orders and swearing as they chased the ponies, for reasons yet to be discovered._

_But some of them, I caught, were a little sluggish and off, one was just wandering around in an infinite circle._

_I still couldn't move._

_No.  
I could walk, just barely, I was floating more than running._

_I came across several pony carnages, which I tried to ignore._

_Apparantly this, "town" was being raided by a small battalion of soldiers and UG's, which should not pose a problem for any town with the proper defense system._

_But the issue was this town had no "proper" defenses._

_Most of the ponies were obviously unarmed, and were running around, screaming and panicking just like what those idiotic civilians do during a common raid._

_Those who did fought back did so by fruitlessly chucking apple pies (yes, apple pies) at their foes, which did nothing but splashed uncomfortably sticky stains on their combat suits. _

___It has been a slaughter._

_Few had died well, and those who lingered, their wounds still bleeding, had been executed with ruthless effeciency._

_They wanted this town clean and empty._

_I searched around for a weapon, anything that could stop them._

_I didn't care about what they're after, I just want the burning to stop._

_Too much bullshit going in my head._

_This is just a dream, I kept telling__ myself, j__ust a dream, and nothing to worry about._

_A stray round, probably from an AK, caught me squarely on my left shoulder blade._

_My suit absorbed most of the impact but the pain felt very real._

_Not a dream._

_I looked down, expecting to see blood, but was unable to locate any bullet holes on my suit._

_I was shot, I knew it._

_I found an what looked like an abandoned FAM, picked it up, and started spraying rounds into the soldiers._

_I could see the blood splattering, but they kept moving on, shrugging off the 10 mm rounds as if they weren't even hit._

_Or rather, they **weren't **hit._

_I didn't think too much about it, whatever it takes to make them stop, stop the burning._

_I ducked behind a half-blown wall of a collapsed building as more stray rounds whizzed past my cover and returned a volley of burst fires._

_I couldn't bring myself into thinking about my home back in Alaska, which usually should be freezing cold._

_I enjoyed the calm coldness, not the burning battlefield sensation._

_The FAM clicked empty._

_I cursed to myself, abandoned the emptied weapon, and searched, either for another weapon to continue fruitlessly spraying my imaginary rounds, or any sign of solution to wake up from this "dream". _

_I rounded a corner, and stopped._

_A young filly knelt beside a dying mare's side; streaks of tears ran down her face._

_It was Fluttershy; and her mother - with a high-frequency blade jutting out of her side._

_I looked to my right, in the distance, I could see a burning grass field of fire, which was a few minutes ago a peaceful place with soothing harmonic tones._

"_Mom…..Don't leave me…." She said between sobs, "Please…Dad is gone, you have to stay with me. Please mom, don't die…"_

_I thought I heard that before._

_Then, a man appeared; his face so familiar, the sight of him sent unreasonable shivers of fear down my spine._

"_Fluttershy…." Her mother said between struggled breaths, "Run..."_

_"Run you idiot!" I cried, but they didn't hear, as if they were deaf._

_Her mother let out one last gurgling breath, and was still._

_The blade then vanished in a black haze, into nothing._

_Fluttershy slowly raised to her hooves, her tiny body quaked._

"_Stop..." her voice was begging, "stop."_

_The man stopped, his head cocked as if he was studying the small pegasus, his expression strange, and shit-eating._

_"you are really quite a pain in my ass, you know that?", the man said, "I don't feel like killing you, move, dammit."_

_"STOP IT!" filly Fluttershy was up and screaming now, I've never seen her like this._

_"I give you three chances..." the man muttered back __coldly._

_"I said __STOP IT!_" she thundered, "Just stop! Stop and look around! Look what all this fighting has done!"

_"Two."_

_"Why do you have to do this?! This is just pointless killing!"_

_"One..."_

_The man said nothing, and did not move; As if he was at all put off by Fluttershy's behaviour, but he didn't give in._

_"Once the weaklings are purged," the man replied, "I will make Equestria great again."_

_"How dare you..." the small pegasus was quaking again, with anger this time, "How DARE you!"_

_She ferociously beated her tiny wings and dashed towards the surprised man, and stared so hard into his eyes that even I couldn't take it._

_A pair of gentle, teary cyan eyes, forced into a mask of anger that they looked completely foreign in._

_But then the anger in her eyes gave way to fear, and the beating of her wings slowed._

"_I...I..." she stammered. The iron was gone from her voice._

_The man quickly recovered, he suddenly jolted out his two arms, and held Fluttershy by her two angel like-wings._

_Shit._

_On instinct my right leg dived forward and I was on sprint._

_I didn't care whether I existed or not, whatever it takes to stop it._

_But I was rather inching forward than running, some unknown slush was slowing me down, I felt something grabbing my legs, I wouldn't make it._

"_You think that pathetic stare of yours is going to do me any harm?" he countered with sheer cold, "zero."_

_his hands than crushed themselves into tight fists._

* * *

2015, Equestria, Ponyville

Another unknown, searing sensation caught me right on my back as the young filly's squeal of pain jerked me back to the "reality".

It was a dream.

No.

It was not a dream.

It was so realistic that it was definitely not imaginary.

It felt like it really happened.

_That pair of bloodied wings…..I would never forget them…_

Everything became clear, her abnormal behaviors, her wings, with all that shit she went through...

I gritted my teeth, either due to the anger or the pain, and let them all slowly subside down into nothingness, my forehead beaded with sweat.

I was back in the afternoon sun, taking deep breaths and turning back to the situation at hand.

Fluttershy was no longer crying, she died down into quiet sobs.

"You've been through a lot." I remarked quitely, barely able to prevent myself from having an emotional outburst.

The pegasus shook, but was calmer now.

"So, you feel better now?" I tried again.

Fluttershy nodded, and muttered something.

But I could slowly make out some of the syllables, that was a good sign.

"So, could you tell me what was going on now?"

She shut her eyes tight and shook her head.

What.

Normally at this point my patience would have broke, but after that horrible vision I understood how much trauma she had suffered.

I have to be as calm and patient as I could muster.

"Well, why?"

"Please..."

"Why?"

"Cyrus please, stop."

I let out a small sigh, it was harder than I imagined.

"Alright." I realized that I would not get any personal opinions out of her, "look, I have no idea what the hell happened today to you, but I want you to stop with the crying now so we can know, ok?"

She nodded.

"Ok..." her voice shook a little.

"Is it because of the bird?" I suggested.

Fluttershy lightened up a bit, "you saw her?"

"Yeah."

She was just getting better but then she sank back to depression, "no, I don't think she's gonna make it."

I shrugged, "We'll see about that, but you would probably want to find somewhere to chill a bit, right?"

Fluttershy nodded.

I was so into comforting the pegasus that I forgot that she was still resting in my laps, and it was starting to give me slight dis-comfort.

"And you know," I said, controlling a small urge to blush, "that you can find a better place than here, right?"

For another full second the yellow pegasus did not get what I meant, then she finally realized that she was leaning onto me for the whole time.

She immediately blushed pink and pulled away.

Her mouth trembled a bit, as she stared at me, or rather-

She slightly looked away in embarassment, "Oh-oh my, I'm sorry about your suit, I didn't do it on purpose...really."

I looked down.

Small patches of pink and yellow splotched over my suit.

Octocamo was working fairly nice, too nice.

I turned the mischievous smart camouflage off for good.

Then, I once again realized that something about me was changing.

I normally had it rough, but something fishy has been going on with my personality since I arrived in this "pony" world.

Especially in front of this pegasus, her appearance seemed to exert an unknown pressure on my killing instincts, holding down the devil inside.

"Nothing to worry about," I claimed, "well, where to?"

Her voice was almost a whisper, "We can go visit my friends, if-if you want to..."

I was satisfied that she finally made up her mind, and nodded.

I raised up, my body stiff.

I felt like I've been sitting for ages.

"Let's go then."

Fluttershy nodded and attempted to raise to her hooves, but she squealed and immediately fell back down.

I was a bit worried, "You ok?"

"Sorry, it's...it's my leg."

"Can you walk?"

"I think..." She tried again, with mere success, she wobbled like her legs were made of jelly, probably due to the pain, and collapsed back down in failure.

I stared at her for a while, and did something that I least expected.

I helped her up.

It was this strange, funny feeling again, a little more intense then the bird, but just as funny.

This time it felt almost _good_.

"Why, why are you doing this?" she asked with difficulty, in slight disbelief, and with her eyes a little teary due to the pain.

It was understandable as after all that crap she went through, she've never seen a human treating her with respect, not to mention giving her a hand.

And I could not help myself into having deep empathy with her, we all, after all, went throught a lot of shit.

Fluttershy seemed to be no longer bothered by the pain, but she still obviously had difficulty standing, not to mention walking.

I went back to my senses and was just about to turn around and get going.

Then, a weird sensation...

"You're not in pain are you?" I turned around.

"Huh?" Fluttershy stared at me, confusion plastered all over her face.

I looked into her eyes, "You feel ok? Nothing bothering you?"

"What's wrong, you all friendly all of the sudden?"

Something jerked me inside and I came back.  
I realized that I did have a problem.

I jerked myself back away from the confused pegasus.

"Uh nothing, just glad that you're ok."

"You're strange."

I've seen too much, her past, couldn't help it.

"I'm a little nervous." I admitted, but didn't want to state out the reason, the thought of her knowing that I've read her past was way too dangerous to think about.

Fluttershy stared back with an expression of somewhere between comforting and confusion.

I looked away in embarassment, "Forget it, Fluttershy. Let's just go."

* * *

"The plan is set, as scheduled, so prepare yourselves." the man said.

"In half a day?" Chrysalis moaned, "it'll take at least a week for me to-"

"Chrysalis, shut up." the Draconequus said.

"I was close to slaughtering those pathetic ponies!" Chrysalis continued, "I was about to show those impudent creatures the might of the Black Sun!"

"Those creatures are not exactly impudent," another human, female, replied, "they serve their princess and followed her will. Though I suppose you could say it's rather... feudalist."

"Hey... are you making fun of me, eh?"

"No," the man said, "Raven did not intend to ridicule your reason for fighting. In the end, it doesn't matter what one's reason is. Religion, Philosophy, Money, Grievance, Vengeance... no matter how trivial the motive, it becomes the cause for conflict."

Chrysalis grunted.

"Wars will never disappear," the man continued, "For at the end, it's just simply part of our nature."

"No one's listening to you long-winded lectures!" Chrysalis snapped, "it was your fault that I lost my whole army, I have my own ways of doing things and my own personal goals. I don't intend to devote my all to this crap, all right!"

"But so long as you are a member of the Black Sun, you will contribute to its goals." the man hissed, "once they have been achieved, I'm sure yours would be swiftly granted as well."

Chrysalis sneered, "You may act all high and mighty, but it appears to me that the Black Sun's motive is merely greed!"

The man sighed in anger, "In that regard, you're just the same as Discord, and the type that I hate the most!"

Discord tensed.

"Our goal is not powered by greed," the man said, "it's by liberty."

Chrysalis narrowed her emerald green eyes, "Excuse me?"

"Out goal, is to create an army, that answer to no princesses."

"Don't we have one right now?" Chrysalis shook her head and sneered.

"At our current state, we are still strained by the elements of Harmony, and I have a feeling that this would get intense." the man grinned, "that's where our purple unicorn comes in."

The man then turned to a sentry soldier, "Do mind to tell Cruel and his squad to try to not screw up this time. We planted quite a faith in him for our plan."

"Yes sir."

"Well then," the man turned to Chrysalis, "You and I will put up quite a show for them tomorrow, alright."

...

* * *

2015, Equestria, Ponyville

With that situation offhand everything else seemed to went smoother than I thought.

Pinkie Pie greeted us with her usual hysterical grin and offered me a huge box of cupcakes which I gracefully rejected, but she stuffed them into my mouth anyway.

When I re-emerged from the giant ginger bread house I thought American ration was one of the most heavenely cuisine ever created.

Rainbow Dash went on presenting her plan of how she's gonna "heroically" rescue Twilight, which I found quite dull; personally I think she's just gonna be a trouble-maker and get herself killed.

Rarity insisted me to tell her how the Octocamo worked, which I had no idea of; she paced around me in circles, observing my suit and remarking it with words like "marvelous" and "fabulous".

I later got bored of her words and left, not before she literally tore a piece of my suit off, which she claimed to be "the seed of fashion".

Applejack sparred with her sand bag, and judging from the chain constantly snapping off she was quite a kicker, I doubt that any living thing could survive a kick like that.

At last, we visited Spike.

He kept bugging me with comments like how I must get Twilight back no matter what; he was so annoying that he made me thought about whether high frequency blades have enough cutting power to slice through dragon scale.

However apart from all that, Fluttershy was feeling progressively better after each visit, which was good.

By the time my suffer ended the sky was almost pitch black.

Fluttershy's leg was progressively better, but she was still limping a little, which made me felt unpleasant.

I turned away and tried to look at something else apart from her wings, and her limping.

The forest caught my eye, and spiked a less intense, yet just as unpleasant feeling.

"That was the place were we first met, remember?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yup." I replied blankly.

"Didn't spark up any unpleasant memory?" she asked rhetorically, of course it did.

I remained silent, there was no need to answer it.

"I was attacked by a group of these soldiers back then," she said, "if you hadn't showed up when you did..."

She shuddered, "-my, just the thought of that gives me shivers."

She turned to me, her face serious, despite her messed up mane made her looked slightly ridiculous, "Cyrus, you saved my life, sure you can do the same with Twilight, right?"

"Yeah." Unless Rainbow do something stupid, I was confident about that.

She was silent for one second and she started again, fairly talkative for a pony like her.

"Cyrus...can you, spare them if you can?"

I didn't get it, "Pardon?"

"Spare..._them_."

I got it.

But it's going to be hard.

I opened my mouth and was about to say "no" when I decided to do it in a nicer way, hopefully, "A mentor of mine once told me that sometimes by taking a life, others can be preserved."

When Raiden said it he sounded fairly neutral, but I figured that I probably wasn't able to get the grip of the tone as I saw that the pegasus's facial expression started to under go depress.

I should stop trying to be a smart ass and agree already.

"But I'll try my best."

"No, I understand," Fluttershy shook her head, "don't...make a filly promise, that you can't keep..."

Having the gist of what a "filly promise" was, I did something between a nod and a shrug, "Fine."

She turned and started limping her way forward again, along with her messy mane I was again starting to get just a little bit worried.

"You really look like hell, you sure you're ok?"

She quickly combed herself with her hoof so her mane wasn't as messed up as before, "Yeah, just having a little hard time. Can't stop thinking about-"

She stopped.

"About what?"

"Nothing, forget it."

We then crossed the tiny bridge and stopped by the door.

"Well then, back to the bird." I started as Fluttershy opened the door.

She turned back and frowned, apparantly at me for attempting to "provoke" her, "I don't want to talk about her..."

I shrugged, and prayed to god (or Celestia) that Angel wouldn't screw up, this is the last step to erase all those traumatizing, fucked-up stuff happened today for Fluttershy.

He didn't.

The bunny leapt into Fluttershy and gave her a big hug (for a rabbit it is).

"Aw, Angel, that's very nice of you."

The bunny smiled, which was odd to me, I've never seen him smile, or smile and actually mean it.

A small swarm of chittering, chirping birds surrounded us, obviously excited.

"Wow," Fluttershy said with slight confusion, "what's with all of you today?"

A faint, yet definitely chirp caught her attention.

Right there, was the tiny bird, her right wing seemed a little bulging with a bandage wrapped around it.

I watched Fluttershy's expression changed, trying my best but my face still melted into a small grin, I liked it.

"But...I-I don't understand, when? How?" She stammered in glee and shock.

"I had the good rabbit carried the bird back and, He seemed to know his stuff."

Fluttershy stared at both Angel and I in surprise and joy.

And I was a little surprised that the rabbit knew First-Aid, well, I did the anesthetic part which pretty much summed it all up, he just did the finishing touches.

But hey, few hours ago I had no idea that I would care for a pegasus, not to mention a bird.

Perhaps, I liked being a nice guy after all.

_"No."_

Someone inside told me, not Snake.

_"Why bother with this? This is pointless, stupid nonsense..."_

_My inner voice..._

I decided to stop being an idiot and just go upstairs and sleep, I seemed to prefer sleeping, I got a job to finish tomorrow.

Fluttershy continued in her state of shock and happiness, surrounded by her critters, oblivious of my absence.

I thought hard as I made my way through the stairs, trying to convice myself that my feelings for her was perfectly rational.

_Sure, it should natural for me to feel protective...natural that I want to look out for her...want to slice Gilda into pieces for bullying her...want to..._

_No, _I thought_, I would have to control that particular protective feeling..._

I decided to ignore that snag and attempt to come up with a plan for tomorrow.

Until I realized that planning was not the thing I was good at.

I slumped into the softness, trying to forget everything that happened today, and let the warmness overtake my body.

* * *

For another couple of minutes Fluttershy did not acknowledge Cyrus's absence, until she did.

"Where-where did Cyrus go?"

Angel returned a rehetorical look, it was damn obvious what he was up to.

"Oh, sorry, it was stupid, sorry."

Angel shrugged.

She couldn't bring herself into looking away from the bird, staring at her bandaged wing.

The same wing.

The same trauma.

The same human.

She shook her head to clear it as she realized that all the critters were staring at her with concern, she couldn't crack now, not in front of her animal friends, after all that.

"Ok, my little friends, time for bed." she muttered, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

Half-expecting Angel to dis-obey, she waited for the bunny to stay and go on a minor tantrum.

But to her surprise, and for the first time she could ever remember, Angel obeyed her.

_Angel..._

Angel has changed, and so did she.

She felt significantly safer, now knowing that she was secure.

At least she wouldn't needed to be called Fluttercry and Failureshy now, not with him around.

But probably he couldn't shield her, at least completely, from those-

She shook her head again, unable think about it anymore, it would just make it worse.

She waited for her critters to settle down, for Angel to start snoring, and curled up on the couch.

Praying one last time to Princess Luna for a peaceful rest without nightmares, she closed her eyes.

* * *

A strange, annoying buzz caused quite a disturbance for me.

It was faint, so I shrugged it off, probably part of some random weird dream.

But then it slowly started making its way into my ears.

I did my best attempt to ignore it.

Then I noticed that it was not coming from inside my head, as I was awake, kind of.

The buzzing noise became a little clearer and I realized that it was someone, perhaps somepony, talking.

"Cyrus...?"

I turned toward the source of the unpleasant voice, I couldn't see really clearly but judging from the faint pink and yellow outline it was Fluttershy.

I was too lazy to tell her to fuck off.

"What?" I grumbled, eager to get back to sleep.

"Is it ok if I...um...stay here with you for a while? I had a nightmare..."

Oh.

Really, that's it?

I wanted to tell her to shut up and get tougher, but again, I was too lazy to rage on her.

"Fine..."

The moment the word slurred out of my mouth I reckoned I should add a note, "but stay on your side."

"O...ok." She stammered.

_Problem solved, _I turned around and decided to continue to doze off back to sleep.

But five heart beats later I felt something soft snuggled up against my back.

"Seriously, that is not the your side of the-"

But Fluttershy was already mute and sounding, snuggling tighter towards me, towards her source of warmth.

I couldn't possibly get all cranky now, I need my rest.

I gave one small sigh and turned back.

Maybe, it wasn't that bad.

_It wasn't that bad..._

* * *

A/N:

Well that's another chapter down, hope you enjoyed watching Gilda getting tormented.

The "Burning" was a MGS phantom pain ref, the part where hell was unleashed on Snake's mother base, hope you see some similarity.

Next chapter is going to be a GIGANTIC one, so prepared to get dismantled.

Oh and, Sullivan is a jerk. Over and out.


End file.
